A Look At Japan's National Security Strategy

By Author: Himalaya Tyagi
Total Articles: 1
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What makes this year policy so special?
Japan is an island nation in the East Asia whose capital is Tokyo. It is an archipelago of 6852 islands. The five main islands of Japan are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa. It is located in the Northwest Pacific Ocean and is bordering on the west by the Sea of Japan. It is also a part of the ring of fire. It is the third largest economy in the world. Japan is facing an domestic challenge such as declining and aging population with a low fertility rate and a severe fiscal conditions. Japan is facing an unprecedented challenge in East Asia as China is modernizing its military at a very fast pace as it has set clear goals to achieve "the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation," the full completion of "building China into a great modern socialist country " by the middle of this century and to buildup the People's Liberation Army to be elevated to "world-class standards". Japan has also called China the greatest strategic challenge to Japan and the international community. Also there is North Korea who has repeatedly launched ballistic missiles towards Japan and its neighbouring ...
... countries and also to bolster its nuclear capabilities both in quality and quantity at the maximum speed. Also Russia is too strengthening its armaments in the Northern Territories. Russia has also doubled down on its strategic coordination with China by conducting joint exercises and drills such as joint navigation by their vessels and joint flights of their bombers in the vicinity of Japan.

The impact of the Ukraine war in the policy?
The war in Ukraine acts as a catalyst to this policy. The war has changed the political context in Japan that their is a possibility of a major war in 21st century which could be in the East Asia over

Taiwan. The opinion of public has also shifted towards the policy as they see the events happening in the war in Ukraine.

What changes could take place in the next five years?
The biggest change that we will see is that now Japan will spend around 2% of its GDP on defense which is previous 1%. This is a huge step as since 1970 the Japanese government has put a cap of 1% there were some changes that happen in 2014 too but nothing major happened. This will make Japan the third largest military spender after the USA and China. As after the World War 2 Japan has adopted a policy of restraining its defense capabilities. The major focus of the budget will be on Cyber in space, unmanned systems, integrated air defense system and long range precision cruise missile. The long range cruise missiles are aimed for targeting the adversaries in their territory. There has been reports that they are in talks with the United States of America for the procurement of American made

Tomahawk Cruise missiles. There is also a focus on developing the domestic defense industry which is not much developed due to restrictions on exports.

How does this affect the US-Japan alliance?
This new policy is a welcome step by the US as they will play a very important role in this policy. As the United States will play a very important role in developing the domestic defense industry in Japan. They will also provide the Japanese with the long range cruise missiles that they require. There has also been news that Japan is developing a next-generation fighter jet with the UK and Italy. The US defense can help the Japanese with critical hardware and also can do joint ventures with the Japanese companies.