Japan launches biggest military build-up since WWII, citing Chinese threat
'This is setting a new heading for Japan. If appropriately executed, the Self Defense Force will be a real, world-class effective force'
Japan deviated from its pacifist history on Friday by unveiling its biggest military build-up since World War II in a strategy that named China “the biggest strategic challenge” in efforts toward peace, safety, and stability.
The five-year, $320 billion will see the purchase of missiles capable of striking China, readying Japan for sustained conflict and making it the world’s third-biggest military spender after Washington and Beijing. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the ramp-up was “my answer to the various security challenges that we face, describing the country as being at a “turning point in history.”
Tokyo is concerned that Russia set a precedent with its invasion of Ukraine that will encourage China to attack Taiwan, threatening nearby Japanese islands, disrupting semiconductor supplies, and putting a stranglehold on sea lanes that supply oil from the Middle East.
"This is setting a new heading for Japan. If appropriately executed, the Self-Defense Forces will be a real, world-class effective force," said Yoji Koda, a former Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force admiral.
In its postwar, American-authored constitution, Japan gave up the right to wage war and the means to do so. But its recent strategy paper condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine for shaking “the foundations of the international order.”
"The strategic challenge posed by China is the biggest Japan has ever faced," it added, which Beijing criticized as false claims about its military activities.
China routinely sends warships through straits between Japanese islands, even while it vehemently objects to the presence of foreign navy ships in the Taiwan Strait. All are classified as international waters.