(Paper II- International Relation- Japan)
This five-year plan will make the country the world’s third-biggest military spender after the United States and China. Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s cabinet approved Japan’s three key security documents.
Reason : Japan announced a $320 billion military spending plan to buy missiles capable of striking China and to ready the country for any sustained conflict, as missile tests by nearby North Korea, China's claim over Taiwan and the invasion of Ukraine by Japan's western neighbour Russia stoke fear of war.
- Japan’s defence policy will remain defence-oriented, and counterstrike’s will only be used under certain limited conditions, according to the documents. The new strategy does not allow for pre-emptive strikes.”
- A Reuters report pointed to a separate national security strategy document referencing China, Russia and North Korea as countries that pose security concerns for Japan, which indicated plans for close cooperation with the United States and other like-minded nations, particularly those in the Indo-Pacific, “to deter threats to the established international order.”
This Mean for The Region
- There are several reasons why Japan’s new defence strategy is important. Under the country’s post-war constitution, Japan is not allowed to have offensive military forces and Article 9 of the constitution says “the 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”.
- According to a 2012 report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Japan has the world’s sixth-best funded defence forces. But Japan’s new strategy documents unveiled show that the country believes that its current defence capabilities are insufficient given the rapidly changing global scenario.
