The new Prime Minister of Japan, Yoshihiko Noda, is about to publish his national security policy in a Japanese magazine.  Reportedly this will include plans to control territories that many Japanese believe inherently belong to Japan.

For several months now, Japan and China have had run ins involving disputes over territorial water, and islands.  This includes harassment of fishing boats by both the Japanese and Chinese navies.

There are also incidents concerning islands in the South China Sea, in which China, Japan, Philippines and Vietnam all lay claim to.  The South China Sea has potentially the largest oil reserves in the world (it’s the real reason the U.S. was at war in Vietnam).

Other issues involve the control of islands north of Hokkaido, which were lost to the Soviet Union after the Second World War.  Japan wants them back and Russia says no way.

Prime Minister Noda is basing his plan on the vision of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who wanted to create a Japan led East Asia community in 2009.  The aim of the idea is to create stable economic and security systems across the region.  If anyone knows history, this sounds just like the reasoning of Imperial Japan, the same reasoning that led to Japan attacking the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor in 1941, thus creating the Second World War.