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Japan keeps job in the navy
By Mark Uhlmann
Volume 50, No. 12, July 12, 2007 |
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ENJOYED POSTING: Captain Naruto Nishi has completed a three-year posting as Defence Attache. He said Australia is second only to the US in security importance to Japan.
Photo: LSPH Yuri Ramsey |
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Japan is keeping the Defence Attaché job in the navy.
Departing Japanese Defence Attaché Captain Naruto Nishi is a navy man, as is the man who is taking his place, Captain Kazushige Nagai.
Captain Nishi, 43, has been in Japan’s Maritime Self Defence Force for over 20 years and his first love is flying helicopters.
He has flown a variety of aircraft and for eight years flew the SH-60-J, a Sea Hawk. It was an experience he thoroughly enjoyed.
Asked if he ever had any close shaves, Captain Nishi said that he was the pilot in an aborted deck landing at midnight. There was no moon and the “bear trap” on deck used to secure the chopper in the high sea state malfunctioned. He was ordered to keep a fixed position off the ship but after about 20 minutes lost altitude and almost met disaster, before managing to lift the chopper out of trouble.
He has worked beside the RAN and US Navy, taking part in the RIMPAC exercise in 1992. He said he also appreciated very much the respect that the RAN and other organisations had shown towards the wreck of the Japanese midget submarine which was found last year off Sydney’s northern beaches. “They have looked after M24 very well.”
Captain Nishi sees Australia as second only to the United States in importance to Japan “from a security point of view” and believes efforts should be made to formalise the Japan-Australia security relationship “step by step”.
One very important step was taken earlier this year when Australian and Japan made a joint declaration on security cooperation.
Maritime security is specifically listed as an area for cooperation, along with counter terrorism, aviation security, peace operations and disaster relief.
But as yet there is no formal alliance with Australia and Captain Nishi said he hoped steps would continue to be taken in that direction.
Despite the fact that they were once enemies, Australia and Japan now had the same sets of values, including democracy and a “tight economic relationship”, so it was “only natural that the defence relationship should become tighter”.
He rejected claims that this desire for increased security cooperation was aimed at containing China. Japan’s economic ties with China were very strong and there was no desire to jeopardise them. Australia of course also had a strong economic relationship with China.
Captain Nishi did not seek a diplomatic posting, he was assigned, but he enjoyed his three years at the Embassy of Japan in Canberra.
He has met “a lot of interesting people” and has managed to see much of the country, visiting capital cities and the bush. He was most impressed by Uluru, which he regards as being symbolic of the vastness of the continent.
Captain Nishi, a black belt in karate, has three children – two teenage girls and a 10-year-old boy – who all speak English well. He says his family have enjoyed the space of Australia and “friendship with generous Australians”. His family like living in a big house and would have been happy if they could have continued to live here.
When Captain Nishi, a graduate of Japan’s National Defence Academy and Naval Cadet School, settles back to work in Japan he would like to return to his first love – flying helicopters. However he accepts that he is much more likely to be given a desk job.
- A Japanese naval training squadron visits Australia every four years. The next visit will take place in August. The squadron will visit Sydney from August 6-10 and Darwin from August 19-21.
Three ships make up the squadron, JDS Kashima, JDS Shimayuki and JDS Sawagiri. There are 750 sailors and officers in the squadron of whom 180 are navy cadets. The squadron will visit 10 countries including New Zealand and Malaysia. |
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