Japan is expected to unveil a new national security strategy on Friday along with details of its biggest military build-up since World War Two, in a marked shift away the pacifism that has dominated its political discourse for seven decades.
The changes, which come as tensions grow with neighbouring China, Russia and North Korea, are likely to include spending on longer-range missiles and cyber warfare capabilities.
Here's what you need to know:
- The changes will be set out in three documents: the National Security Strategy (NSS), the National Defence Program Guidelines, and the Mid-Term Defence Program. They will also lay out how much it will cost over the next five years.
- The most closely watched language will concern Japan's new "counter strike" capability. Because Japan has a pacifist constitution, its military is armed with missiles that can fly a few hundred kilometres at most.
- If, as widely expected, it acquires land or sea-launched missiles that can hit ships or land targets 1,000km away, it would have a counterstrike capability that Tokyo believes will deter attacks.
- Japan has been discussing the plan for more than two years.
- In its most recent budget request, the defence ministry said it would extend the range of its ground-launched Type 12 anti-ship missiles by 2026 and wanted to develop other missiles, including hypersonic weapons.
- Japan may also buy ship-launched, U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles, sources with knowledge of the plan have said. Tokyo wants as many as 500 of the cruise missiles, which can fly 1,250km, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.
- The defence ministry will spend more than $300 billion on its military over five years, Japanese officials have said, doubling its defence budget to about 2% of GDP.
- About $22 billion of that will go toward cyber warfare operations and $14 billion toward space capabilities, according to the Yomiuri, which said it had seen a draft of the plan.
- To better coordinate its air, sea and land forces, Japan will establish its first joint command centre. Prime Minister Kishida's ruling party is also discussing joint U.S.-Japan commands, according to sources.
- The government also plans to build about 70 munitions depots within five years and 130 by 2035, the Yomiuri added. Military planners worry that Japan has too little ammunition for a lengthy conflict, a problem that has been highlighted by Russia's war in Ukraine, which Russia calls a "special operation". They also say stocks of spare parts are low.
- About 70% of the military's munitions are stored on Hokkaido island in Japan's north, a legacy of Cold War planning, when Japan's military adversary was the Soviet Union, according to a report by Nikkei.
- Japan now sees its main threat coming from China along its southwestern island chain, running along the East China Sea toward Taiwan.
($1 = 137.6300 yen)
(Reporting by Sakura Murakami and Tim Kelly. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
