SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING JAPAN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO GLOBAL STABILITY

SEC. 1012. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING JAPAN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO GLOBAL STABILITY (a) Findings.— The Congress makes the following findings: (1) The alliance of the United States and Japan is the foundation for the security of Japan and peace in the Far East and is a major contributing factor to the democratic freedoms and economic prosperity enjoyed by both the United States and Japan. (2) Threats to the security of both the United States and Japan have increased significantly since 1976, principally as the result of— (A) the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union; (B) the continued expansion and buildup of military forces of the Soviet Union (particularly the expansionist efforts by the Soviet Union in the South Pacific and the buildup of the Soviet Pacific fleet); (C) the occupation of Cambodia by Vietnam; and (D) instability in the Persian Gulf region (from which Japan receives 60 percent of its petroleum and one-third of its total energy requirements). (3) In keeping with the declaration made at the 1983 meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, of the leaders of the leading industrialized democracies that “the security of our countries is indivisible and must be approached on a global basis”, the government of Japan— (A) has raised its defense spending by an average of 5 percent per year since 1981; (B) has rescinded a limit on annual expenditures for defense of 1 percent of the gross national product of Japan; (C) is fulfilling the pledge of Prime Minister Suzuki to defend the territory, airspace, and sea lanes of Japan to a distance of 1,000 miles by 1990. (4) While recognizing and applauding the actions by the government of Japan referred to in paragraph (3), Congress notes that Japan has the second largest gross national product in the world, is a major creditor nation, and has a large private savings rate, but nevertheless lags far behind other industrialized democracies in terms of the percentage of its gross national product that it spends for national defense and programs to promote global security and stability. (b) Sense of Congress.— It is the sense of Congress that the United States would welcome an initiative by Japan to assume a politically acceptable and significant global security role consistent with its economic status by taking the following actions: (1) Increasing spending for its Official Development Assistance program and its defense programs so that, by 1992, the level of spending by Japan on those programs (stated as a percentage of gross national product) will approximate the average of the levels of spending by the member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on official development 101 STAT. 1143 assistance and defense programs (stated as a percentage of their respective gross national products). (2) Devoting increased spending for its Official Development Assistance program primarily to the Republic of the Philippines and regions of importance to global stability outside of East Asia, particularly Oceania, Latin America, and the Caribbean and Mediterranean nations. (3) Devoting any increase in spending for that program primarily to concessional, untied grants and increasing the portion of total expenditures made for that program for those multilateral financial institutions of which Japan is a member. (4) Designating those nations that are to be recipients of increased development assistance as described in paragraphs (1) through (3) through consultation with its security partners. (5) Completing its five-year defense program for fiscal years 1986 through 1990 and, at the earliest possible date after the completion of that program, further enhancing the fulfillment of the pledge of Prime Minister Suzuki referred to in subsection (a)(3).