TOKYO (Agencies via Xinhua) -- Japan has increased its prime minister's powers to react quickly against foreign submarines which illegally enter Japanese territorial waters, a defence ministry spokesman said yesterday.
The move follows an incident involving a Democratic People's Republic of Korean (DPRK) submarine which ran aground on South Korea's coast on September 18.
Under Japan's Self-Defence Forces law, the Japanese prime minister had been required to hold a cabinet meeting to approve any order to the Maritime Self-Defence Force, or the navy, to hunt down an intruding submarine.
The revision to the law means the prime minister would no longer be required to hold a lengthy cabinet meeting to sanction the orders.
The Maritime Safety Agency, or the coast guard, still holds the first responsibility for dealing with all intruding vessels, including submarines.
If the coast guard decides it cannot handle a specific intrusion, for instance a submerged submarine, the navy would then be asked to track it down.
After the navy has detected a submerged submarine, it would order the submarine to surface and then order it to leave Japan's 12-nautical mile territorial waters.
The navy still would not have the right to use force against the submarine unless its own vessels come under attack, the ministry spokesman said.
Modern anti-submarine weaponry means a detected submarine underwater is as good as dead.
Japan's navy has one of the world's strongest anti-submarine forces, with about 60 modern destroyers, 100 P-3C Orion anti-submarine patrol planes and 100 advanced Sea King and Seahawk anti-submarine helicopters, in addition to 16 diesel submarines of its own.