Japan OKs enemy base strike capability in major defense policy shift
Japan decided Friday to acquire the capability to strike enemy bases and double defense spending in a dramatic shift in its postwar security policy under the nation’s war-renouncing Constitution, provoking a harsh backlash from China.
With the security environment surrounding Japan becoming unstable amid threats from China, North Korea and Russia, Tokyo, which has rejected warfare for the past 77 years, will be able to directly attack another country’s territory in case of an emergency.
Obtaining the ability to deter attacks from outside forces, called a “counterstrike capability,” was stipulated in the government’s three key defense documents, including the National Security Strategy, updated by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet.
Critics note that the Constitution only allows Japan to act in self-defense, but the NSS said the nation needs to have the ability to “make effective counterstrikes in an opponent’s territory as a bare minimum self-defense measure.”
The NSS mentioned that Japan is facing the “most severe and complicated security environment” since World War II, while the government has pledged to stick to its commitment to the “exclusively self-defense-oriented policy” and “not to become a military power.”
In their first revision since 2013, the long-term security policy guidelines said that missile defense alone is insufficient to deal with the “significant reinforcement of missile forces” by Japan’s neighboring countries, which have opposed its renewed defense policy.
Kishida said at a press conference after the Cabinet gave approval for the updated security documents that Japan’s obtainment of a counterstrike capability will be “essential” to deter missile attacks from other nations.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin lambasted Kishida’s government, saying that Japan “ignores facts” and “deviates from its commitment” to bilateral “relations and common understandings,” saying the country “groundlessly discredits” its neighbor.
To fundamentally beef up its defense capacity, Japan set a target of boosting its annual defense budget to 2 percent of gross domestic product in fiscal 2027, which ends in March 2028.
Japan has long capped its annual defense budget at around 1 percent of GDP, or a little more than 5 trillion yen ($36 billion).
Emphasizing that Japan’s defense buildup is needed to bolster its “diplomatic power,” Kishida said his administration will defend the country and its people during a “turning point in history.”
In a bid to avoid unnecessary confrontation with China and other nations, Kishida also promised to continue carefully explaining Japan’s defense policy to its neighbors.
Kishida said at a ruling party meeting earlier Friday the government will earmark around 8.9 trillion yen for the fiscal 2027 defense budget.
Later in the day, the premier said his administration will raise additional funds by cutting other expenditures and increasing taxes among other measures, while stopping short of referring to when the government will carry out the tax hikes.
The initial defense budget for fiscal 2023 is expected to reach a record of around 6.5 trillion yen, compared with 5.2 trillion yen for fiscal 2022. Both exclude spending on the realignment of U.S. Forces in Japan.
If realignment-related spending is included, the fiscal 2023 budget would be around 6.8 trillion yen, a government source said.