{"id":58715,"date":"2019-07-29T20:23:47","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T20:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/29\/japans-election-result-unlikely-to-stop-aegis-ashore-deployment-despite-controversy\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:22:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:22:27","slug":"japans-election-result-unlikely-to-stop-aegis-ashore-deployment-despite-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/digital-show-dailies\/smd\/2019\/07\/29\/japans-election-result-unlikely-to-stop-aegis-ashore-deployment-despite-controversy\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s election result unlikely to stop Aegis Ashore deployment despite controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 The recent election of an independent candidate who opposes Japan\u2019s effort to deploy an anti-ballistic missile system in her constituency may interrupt the government\u2019s plan. However, the election result is unlikely to stop the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shizuka Terata, who was backed by the main opposition parties in Akita prefecture and had run on a platform opposing the local deployment of the Aegis Ashore system, defeated a first-term lawmaker who ran for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe\u2019s Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, in upper house elections held July 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local community opposed the proposed deployment of Aegis Ashore over health concerns from radar and electromagnetic emissions, as well as fear that the system could become a target in an armed conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contest in the prefecture was seen as a de facto referendum on the proposed deployment of Aegis Ashore to a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force training area in the Araya district of the prefecture\u2019s capital, which is located off the Sea of Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Michael Bosack, a special adviser for government relations at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies, told Defense News that \u201cthe election of a single upper-house politician that is opposed to the deployment of Aegis Ashore does not shift the balance of power away from the LDP. The government is likely to move forward with its plan for deployment of Aegis Ashore in Akita.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the election result is \u201clikely to delay\u201d the Aegis Ashore deployment \u201cas the Abe government continues its deliberations with the local community,\u201d added Bosack, who had formerly worked on alliance management and trilateral coordination between the United States, Japan and South Korea while he was the former deputy chief of government relations at the headquarters of U.S. forces in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\t