Tokyo, Dec. 16 (ANI): Former senior U.S. State Department official Kevin Maher has said a Liberal Democratic Party-led Government must act quickly to demonstrate Japan's readiness to effectively respond to the threat posed by an increasingly bellicose China, as the party widely is predicted to win in Sunday's elections.
Maher, who was replaced as director of the Department of State's Office of Japan Affairs in March 2011, said the row over the Senkaku Islands is just one example of the mounting regional threat stemming from China's belligerent behavior.
According to the Japan Times, he, however, stressed that a display by Tokyo of its enhanced defense capabilities would send a strong message to Beijing that Japan is prepared to defend its sovereign territory alongside its key security partner, the United States.
"Japan is at a strategic crossroads right now with respect to China," Maher, who served as U.S. consul general in Naha, Okinawa, from 2006 to 2009 before taking the helm at the Office of Japan Affairs, said in interview with The Japan Times.
"I hope the new government (that emerges after the Lower House poll) would be decisive and realistic about the threat from China," he said.
Maher retired from the State Department in April last year, after assisting the post-Tohoku disaster relief effort.
His earlier exit from the Japan desk followed alleged reports in Japanese media that he had referred to Okinawans as 'masters of manipulation and extortion' during an off-the-record briefing with students in the U.S, the report said.
On Thursday, a Chinese Government airplane intruded into Japanese airspace over the Senkakus for the first time ever, according to records that have been kept since 1958.
The move marked an escalation of the bitter dispute triggered by Japan's purchase of three of the islands in September, a move that effectively nationalized the entire chain, the report said.
Maher said that Beijing is attempting to show the international community that it effectively controls the East and South China seas, which are plagued by competing sovereignty claims involving multiple countries.
He stressed that Japan needs to increase its defense budget, which at present accounts for less than 1 percent of its gross domestic product, to accelerate and expand defense-related programs.
According to the report, Maher underscored that the Japanese public needs to realize Washington and Tokyo will defend each other in unison, and that the U.S. will not act alone. (ANI)
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