Japan plans detecting system at East China Sea
(People Daily Online)
Updated: 2004-11-09 10:29

Japan Defense Agency is studying the possibility of adding an electromagnetic wave detecting system on the East China Sea to strengthen collection and management of intelligence from China as well as supervision over Chinese warships and jets, People's Daily Online said.

The Agency decided earlier to build a station on Miyako Island of Okinawa County to intercept and handle communication signals of Chinese warships and aircraft, which will be put into operation in 2008. Since the China-Japan dispute over resources of East China Sea surfaced, Japan has enhanced all kinds of military deployment in this sea area and the two countries conducted consultations at the end of last month.

The Agency believes that a station on Miyako Island is not enough, and another one must be added at a southwest island to intercept and decode the rivalry's radio communication signals, Xinhuanet quoted Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun as saying.

HK-based Ming Pao Daily News reported on November 7 that presently Japan only has a radar station on Miyako Island without troops deployed there. The Agency has decided to dispatch Ground Self-Defense Force to the island with a newly established "communication intelligence team" and unmanned surveillance planes. The F4 fighters on Naha Base will also be replaced by more advanced F15 fighters, and fighters will be sent to Shimoji, an island near Taiwan, to enhance defense capability in the southwest.

The Agency has planned to build an 850-people army to be sent to Naha City, Okinawa, to form a 2,300-member brigade there, the report pointed out. To guard against enemy's attacks against the isolated islands, the Agency changed its defense ideology in the past (that is, taking the Soviet Union as the imaginary enemy and attaching importance to defending the north) and made clear the policy of reinforcing military deployment on southwest islands.