Japan Rolls Out Biggest Military Buildup Since World War II

Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) disembark from a V-22 Osprey aircra
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

The Japanese government on Friday unveiled its latest five-year defense planning document, announcing a $320 billion military buildup that will include missiles capable of hitting targets in China.

Prime Minister Kishida Fumio called the new plan a “turning point in history” for the post-war pacifist nation.

“Fundamentally strengthening our defense capabilities is the most urgent challenge in this severe security environment,” Kishida said last week when previewing the military buildup.

On Friday, Kishida promised that despite increasing its military spending to two percent of Gross Domestic Product by 2027 and greatly enhancing its ability to strike targets at long range, Japan’s “path as a peaceful nation will remain unchanged.”

The plan envisions both upgrading Japan’s indigenously produced missiles and buying at least 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States. 

Kishida insisted that these upgrades, while dramatic, lie within “the scope of the Japanese Constitution, international law, and domestic law,” and did not change Japan’s defensive military posture. He said the changes were necessary because careful military simulations demonstrated Japan’s current capabilities were insufficient to meet its security goals.

Acknowledging both domestic and international controversy around the plan, Kishida said his government would “continue our efforts to not only explain these points to the public in a transparent manner, but also to the countries concerned, and to gain their understanding.”

Kyodo News quoted analysts who said the Japanese Self-Defense Force was specifically concerned by Chinese territorial aggression, the possibility of China invading Taiwan, disruptions to global security created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and North Korea’s growing nuclear missile threat.

Kanazawa Institute of Technology professor and former Japanese vice-admiral Ito Toshiyuki said Kishida’s administration has told the public that “acquiring a counterstrike capability is to address North Korea’s missile activities,” but behind the scenes, “preparedness for a China-Taiwan conflict” was the highest priority. Ito himself believes such a conflict is likely within five years.

The left-wing New York Times newspaper noted that much of the Japanese public is concerned about the Chinese threat to Taiwan, especially after Russia invaded Ukraine, and has become much more receptive to increased defense spending.

“One year ago, I couldn’t imagine that the Japanese people would support this kind of security initiative,” remarked Meikai University professor Kotani Tetsuo.

“People support strengthening the Self-Defense Forces. They support defense spending increases, but they don’t like more taxes,” said international politics and security professor Uemura Hideki of Ryutsu Keizai University.

One of the domestic controversies is that Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) agreed in principle to raise taxes as necessary to meet its higher defense spending goals, but Kishida backed away from setting a timetable for the tax increases and has been reluctant to issue government bonds for the needed funding. Some LDP politicians said they were caught by surprise when the prime minister began discussing corporate tax hikes to finance increased defense spending.

Other Japanese critics found it difficult to reconcile the pacifist postwar constitution, which states that “Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes,” with the development of long-range strike capabilities, especially if they might be used preemptively in situations like an impending North Korean missile launch.

Internationally, the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday denounced the new Japanese defense strategy and urged Tokyo to “reflect on its policies.”

“Japan disregards the facts, deviates from the common understandings between China and Japan and its commitment to bilateral relations, and discredits China,” charged Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.

Among other changes, the revised Japanese defense strategy dropped the longstanding goal of achieving a “mutually beneficial strategic partnership” with China, replacing it with hopes for a “constructive and stable relationship.”

South Korea, whose relationship with Japan has been strained for some time, also raised objections to the security document. The South Korean Foreign Ministry on Friday demanded Japan remove language promoting Japan’s claims on the Dokdo Islands, currently controlled by Seoul and defended by a detachment of the South Korean coast guard. The barely habitable main islands have a mixture of Korean and Japanese inhabitants, although very few of them are considered legal permanent residents.

Japan refers to the tiny islets as the Takeshima Islands, while some Western nations call them the Liancourt Rocks, a fairly apt description of the archipelago. They are impressive-looking rocks, so the islands have a surprisingly brisk tourist industry, and there are also fishing grounds and natural gas in the vicinity.

Imperial Japan annexed the islands in 1905, five years before invading the Korean peninsula in its entirety, while South Korea took control in 1954. Both South Koreans and Japanese view control of the islands as a matter of national pride, and some Japanese believe that if they relinquished their claims on Dokdo/Takeshima, it would weaken their case in other territorial disputes with China and Russia. Japanese official documents and even school textbooks often describe the Takeshima Islands as occupied territory, to the great annoyance of South Korea.

“Our government strongly protests the inclusion into the National Security Strategy of its wrongful claim to Dokdo, which is our inherent territory historically, geographically and by international law, and calls for the immediate deletion of this,” the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

“The Japanese government must clearly realize that the repetition of the wrongful claims to Dokdo would not be of any help in the efforts for the establishment of the future-oriented South Korea-Japan relationship,” South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Lim Soo-suk said.

Lim added that Japanese cooperation on North Korea’s missile threat was welcome but stressed South Korea should be kept in the loop on all matters related to its provocative northern neighbor.

The U.S. government, which has wanted its close allies in Tokyo to increase defense spending across both Democrat and Republican administrations, express strong approval for the new strategic plan.

“The Prime Minister is making a clear, unambiguous strategic statement about Japan’s role as a security provider in the Indo-Pacific. He has put a capital ‘D’ next to Japan’s deterrence,” U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Friday.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin welcomed the updated Japanese strategy documents, saying they reflect “Japan’s staunch commitment to upholding the international rules-based order and a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

“We support Japan’s decision to acquire new capabilities that strengthen regional deterrence, including counterstrike capabilities.  We also endorse Japan’s decision to increase substantially its defense spending and reach two percent of GDP in 2027, and to improve the jointness and interoperability of its Self-Defense Forces through the creation of a permanent joint operational headquarters,” Austin said.

Austin was referring to Japan moving forward on establishing a joint command center for its Ground, Maritime, and Air Self-Defense Forces, enhancing coordination between those services and the U.S. military. 

The joint command center is meant to help the Japanese military respond more quickly to crises and become a more active player in the U.S. plan for “integrated deterrence” across Asia — in other words, the U.S. and its allies want to tout faster and more complete integration of forces to provide a more robust deterrent against potential aggressors such as China and North Korea.

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