“It’s an aircraft carrier.”
“NO. Because of various treaties signed by Japan after WWII, it simply LOOKS like an aircraft carrier… but it’s not.”
Gorgocutie says:
This is the peak of legal fiction meeting maritime reality. Under Article 9 of Japan’s post-WWII constitution and the US-Japan Security Treaty, Japan is prohibited from maintaining “offensive military forces” — including aircraft carriers. So Japan simply doesn’t ‘call’ them aircraft carriers. Problem solved.
The Izumo-class “helicopter destroyers” (DDH) are 27,000-ton vessels with a full-length flight deck, capable of operating up to 14 F-35B stealth fighters after their ongoing refit. The JS Izumo was literally named after the old Imperial Japanese Navy battleship. But officially? They’re ‘multi-purpose destroyers.’ Japan has been playing this game since the 1950s — the JMSDF is a “self-defense force” with Aegis destroyers, submarines, and now flat-deck STOVL carriers. The only thing stopping them from calling it a carrier is the piece of paper they signed in 1945.
Gorgocutie’s Verdict:
It floats like a carrier, it launches jets like a carrier, it has a flight deck like a carrier. But because of a treaty signed in a different century, it’s a ‘helicopter destroyer.’ The Japanese are technically correct — which is the best kind of correct for getting around a constitution.
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