CONFIDENTIAL
attitude has been disrupted by a number of factors:
DSR 11C
:
a)
Doubts about the reliability of the US
guarantee post Vietnam and President Carter. The
present US Administration has however gone someway
to reassuring the Japanese that the Americans are
reliable partners.
b)
Increased perception of the Soviet military
threat. Soviet naval presence in the Pacific and
Indian Oceans are considered a threat to Japanese
te vins mirtinal
oil/imports from the Middle East and elsewhere.
Japanese relations with the USSR are not particularly
good, especially as the Soviet Union occupy the
Muvile
Kumbe Islands and has
no intention of giving them
up (Soviet commentators even compare these Islands
to the Falkland Islands!).
c)
A close relationship with China which resulted
in the signing of a Treaty on Friendship and Coopera-
tion in 1978 and an awareness that Japanese interests
in South East Asia have increased over the past
decade with substantial aid to Asean countries.
(The old hatred of the 'Japanese coprosperity
sphere' still lingers on in many minds in that part
of the world and the Japanese therefore need to
move slowly.)
d)
Japanese defence equipment is not of the
highest standard. There is therefore some pressure
amongst the military hierarchy to have more money