Press Conference

1. Announcements

None.

2. Questions and Answers

Question:
According to certain press reports, there exists a seventh route named “Brown” with regard to the flight training route for the Osprey within Japan. Please confirm if this is a fact.

Minister:
I have confirmed the flight route on the map, and I believe there were six routes written there, but I could not confirm this so-called Brown route. Since I have not received any notification from the U.S. side, I would like to confirm this. As a matter of fact, I do not know about the details of said route.

Question:
Regarding the low-level flight training that is to be conducted in various locations around Japan, opposition to this has been raised by various local communities. Please tell us how you intend to convince these communities?

Minister:
A question was given in yesterday’s Diet session. There was an agreement by the bilateral security committee on low-level flights in January 1999, where an agreement was reached between Japan and the U.S. to pay due consideration to public safety for low-level flights based on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Aviation Act. Based on this bilateral security committee agreement, we will make a clear request to the U.S. side to pay due consideration to safety and security when flying in order to avoid causing concern to the local communities. We have not yet received notification on when the Osprey will be coming to Japan and what kind of training is going to be conducted. Although I believe that the related personnel and pilots are yet to be deployed to the units, I would like to respond after the overall plan has become apparent, and after having received notification on what route they are going to use and the kind of training they are going to conduct in Japan.

Question:
So, no measures have been implemented with regard to the local communities for now?

Minister:
My understanding is that this is something akin to an environmental data book, where only a report on the evaluation of the data for the effect it would have on the environment of the routes has been given. Therefore, this is not something that indicates the plan of the flight training such as when and how it is going to fly according to said route. I would like to make a decision after receiving the details of the actual flight training.

Question:
Yesterday, in the House of Representatives Budget Committee, a proposal was given for the revision of the interpretation regarding the right of collective self-defense. I believe it was from the meeting of the Frontier Subcommittee, and Prime Minister Noda mentioned that, “having received the proposal, we would like to finalize the discussions within the government.” You have expressed your thoughts that such revisions will not be conducted during your term in office. How do you intend to become involved in said discussions within the government?

Minister:
I have not yet heard about the framework for conducting discussions within the government. Frankly, I have no idea what this framework is going to be or how the discussions are going to progress. Since I have not been called on this nor do I have any knowledge on its framework, I am not in a position to give a definite answer. I am what-iffing things from here, but that report document merely proposed what should be discussed regarding the future direction for Japan over a prolonged time period, and it does not include anything on what the current administration should do in its policies in reality. In any case, I think the government has yet to come up with a framework or organization to confirm what was given in said proposal. I feel that I would definitely be called on if this is the case, but I have not been notified of anything.

Question:
So, it’s going to be a matter of through what stance you will be approaching this after the framework has been established?

Minister:
Yes. The aforementioned was pretty much a framework for giving a proposal by experts, so I feel that in order to consider what kind of framework is going to be needed to transplant this to actual policy is going to be something in the next step.

Question:
Conversely, do you have any thoughts on the kind of framework that would be desirable?

Minister:
I don’t think there is a defined set of thinking in this regard. However, on this issue in the past, such as when the LDP was in power for example, the Abe administration held various study groups and advisory panels. I don’t know what the final conclusion was given on this back then, but I believe that four types of discussions were conducted. However, that was something back in the time of the LDP (administration), so I cannot accurately foresee how the DPJ administration is going to handle this.

Question:
Regarding the earlier case concerning the Osprey, do you perceive that the training plan for the Osprey is going to be notified to the Japan side, including low-level flight?

Minister:
No, that is not the case. I don’t think each and every plan is all going to be notified. Moreover, such process of giving separate notifications on separate plans is not stated within the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty or the Status of Forces Agreement. However, since Japan and the U.S. had made an agreement on how to pay due considerations on safety through the bilateral security committee, I think you will understand if you read the document on said agreement that a promise has been made between Japan and the U.S. in a general form to expend all possible means for flight safety when conducting training, which is my understanding of things.

Question:
In that case, if you are asking for such safety and assurance without being informed of the details of the route, the route that has been informed for now is not something that we can say “please change this to such-and-such,” but where we can only reconfirm their basic attitude?

Minister:
Attitude or not, they are going to conduct actual flight training. In a case where training with an Osprey is going to be conducted somewhere along the aforementioned route, I think it is possible for the Japan side to request the kinds of things that should require attention on safety based on the actual terrain and/or the environmental conditions of the time.

(End)