As regional threats rise, Japan eases defense-only strategy
TOKYO — In a major break from its strictly self-defense-only postwar principle, Japan adopted a national security strategy Friday declaring plans to possess preemptive strike capability and cruise missiles within years to give itself more offensive footing against threats from neighboring China and North Korea.
With China, North Korea and Russia directly to its west and north, Japan “faces the severest and most complicated national security environment since the end of the war,” the strategy said, referring to World War II. It named China as “the biggest strategic challenge” — before North Korea and Russia — to Japan’s effort toward ensuring the peace, safety and stability for itself and the international society.
Possession of the strike-back capability is “indispensable” as deterrence to discourage enemy attacks, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a news conference Friday, calling it “a major change to Japan’s postwar security policy.”
“When threats become reality, can the Self-Defense Force fully protect our country? Frankly speaking, the current (SDF capability) is insufficient,” Kishida said.
Under the strategy, Japan’s defense spending through 2027 will increase to about 2 percent of Japan’s GDP to total some 43 trillion yen, 1.6-times that of the current five-year total.
Kishida said the new target sets the NATO standard for defense spending, a budget increase that has been his policy priority since taking office in October 2021.
Because of its wartime past as an aggressor and national devastation after its defeat, Japan’s postwar policy prioritized the economic growth while keeping its security light by relying on American troops stationed in Japan under their bilateral security agreement. Japan’s defense buildup has long been considered a sensitive issue at home and in the region, especially for Asian victims of Japanese wartime atrocities.
But experts say China’s growing influence, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and fear of Taiwan emergency prompted many Japanese to support increased capability and spending.
“Taiwan emergency and Japan emergency are inseparable,” said Ken Jimbo, a defense expert at Keio University, noting that Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni is only 70 miles away from Taiwan.
Rapid advancement of missiles have become “realistic threats” in the region, making interception by existing missile defense systems more difficult, the strategy said. North Korea fired more than 30 ballistic missiles this year, including one that flew over Japan. China fired five ballistic missiles into waters near Japanese southern islands including Okinawa.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated accusations Japan was “ignoring facts, deviating from its commitment to ChinaJapan relations and the common understandings between the two countries, and groundlessly discrediting China.”
“Hyping up the so-called China threat to find an excuse for its military build-up is doomed to fail,” Wang said Friday at a daily news briefing.
South Korea said Friday that Japan must consult with Seoul to receive consent before taking any action that gravely affects Seoul’s national interests, such as an exercise of its rights to counterstrike capability targeting the Korean Peninsula.
The South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it’s “desirable” for Japan to implement the security policy to contribute to regional peace and stability.
Counterstrike capability noted in Japan’s new strategy — approved alongside two defense strategy documents by Kishida’s Cabinet — won’t be implemented until at least 2026 when deployment of the powerful long-range Tomahawk missile, favored by the U.S. and U.K. navies, begins.