Japan builds cruisemissile fleet to counter China threat

Japan is to build long-range cruise missiles to defend itself against China, as the East Asian arms race continues in an erosion of the country’s pacifist constitutional position.

The ministry of defence will request 33.5 billion yen (NZ$457 million) to upgrade a ground-tosea missile into a weapon that can travel 300km, Japanese media reported.

A high-speed gliding missile is also being developed that could fly up to 1000km putting China and North Korea in range.

The conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party said over the northern summer that the country should be prepared to launch pre-emptive strikes on foreign missile bases, a move that will alarm neighbours and disturb defenders of the postwar ‘‘peace constitution’’.

The party’s defence committee gave its authority to a growing consensus in government that Japan needed to acquire the ability to destroy North Korean missiles on the ground before they are launched, rather than relying on missile defence systems to take them out in the air.

The immediate priority, however, is to defend Japan’s remote southwestern islands against an attack by China.

Chinese coastguard vessels and patrol planes have been increasingly active around the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, administered by Japan but claimed by China under the name of the Diaoyus.

Earlier this year, Japan’s SelfDefence Forces deployed Type 12 missiles, which have a range of 100km, to Miyako Island, part of the Nansei chain between the big island of Kyushu and Taiwan.

This weapon is to be upgraded to a 300km range and adapted to be able to be fired from ships and planes, to defend the Senkakus, 200km away, against naval attack.

For decades, Japan’s security strategy was stable, based on the alliance with its protector, the US, and on the predictable and long-established military power of China, the USSR and then Russia.

In the 21st century, however, east Asia has been transformed by the rising military power of China and most recently by the newly acquired nuclear capacity of North Korea.