The next Group of Eight Summit will be held in Hokkaido where Curzon will be biking around over the next ten days. Tokyo has been making all sorts announcements in preparation for the summit. One story that has been featured in the news is the readiness of the Japanese National Police Agency’s Counter-Terrorist Special Assault Team. The SAT was formed out of earlier Special Armed Police units in 1996 after a plane-hijacking at Hakodate airport the year before. The unit has trained with GSG9, GIGN and the SAS. You can see a clip of them practicing on YouTube.

A second interesting development is the possible dispatch of SDF to Darfur which according to government sources is “inevitable” if Japan is to live up to its role as host of the G8. The existence of gaiatsu (external pressure) in Japanese foreign and defence policy has been debated back and forth for years. However, I think this Darfur move should be chalked up to the theory that gaiatsu is a myth — an excuse that Japanese politicians use to justify the policies they know will not be popular (i.e. a cop out). This has been a common form or foreign policy implementation in Japan ever since the US-Japan strategic alliance began in 1952. Japan needs this mission more than the UN needs Japan on this mission.

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