Japan on Friday unveiled a new national security plan that signals the country’s biggest military buildup since World War II, doubling defense spending and veering from its pacifist constitution in the face of growing threats from regional rivals, CNN reported.
In an early evening televised address in Tokyo, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the government had approved three security documents—the National Security Strategy (NSS), the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Force Development Plan—to bolster Japan’s defense capabilities amid an increasingly unstable security environment.
The new measures include provisions that would enable Japan to possess “counterstrike capabilities,” the ability to directly attack another country’s territory in the event of an emergency and under specific circumstances, Kishida said.
In taking the new defense initiatives, Japan is bending the interpretation of its post-World War II constitution, which put constraints on its Self-Defense Forces in that they can only be used for what their name implies, defending the Japanese homeland, CNN added.
But Tokyo is facing its “most hostile security situation in decades.”
With its defense overhaul, Japan describes one of those rivals—China—as its “biggest strategic challenge,” public broadcaster NHK reported Friday.
Long-time rival China has been growing its naval and air forces in areas near Japan.
Chinese ships have been making frequent forays near the islands, which it calls the Diaoyus, while Japan scrambles warplanes almost daily in response to Chinese planes nearing its airspace.
Meanwhile, China has been upping its military pressure on Taiwan.
From its west, Japan has been watching the buildup of North Korea’s missile arsenal.
To the north of Japan, a Russian buildup on islands there since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and bellicose rhetoric from Moscow has only added to the apprehension in Tokyo that it may need to defend its territories from several threats at once, CNN added.
While Japan is regarded to have one of the world’s most modern and powerful militaries, its weaponry has been designed to strike enemies near its islands. But the new defense strategy, which public broadcaster NHK said earlier this week would give Tokyo arms like US-made Tomahawk missiles.
Tokyo’s new defense strategy drew praise from its No. 1 ally, the United States, which shares a mutual defense treaty with Japan and is pledged to defend Japanese territory from attack.
Experts say Japanese forces are vital to any potential US military operations against China should hostilities break out.