Japan has begun a $320billion (£263billion) military build-up plan which would create missiles capable of striking China under a new five-year national security strategy.
Amid heightened regional tensions with China, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced the government will now stockpile spare parts and other munitions, reinforce logistics, develop cyber warfare capabilities, and co-operate more closely with the United States.
The prime minister also warned that because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China may now push forward with plans to reclaim Taiwan which may threaten nearby Japanese islands.
"Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a serious violation of laws that forbid the use of force and has shaken the foundations of the international order,” the government’s national security paper read.
"The strategic challenge posed by China is the biggest Japan has ever faced.”
The military rearmament is unprecedented in Japan but has high public support - some surveys have put support for the national security strategy as high as 70 per cent.
Japan’s new security strategy comes after the head of the UK’s armed forces, admiral Sir Tony Radakin warned the West is facing a “generational struggle for the future of the global order” due to increasing threats from China, North Korea, Russia and Iran.
In a speech at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London on Wednesday, he said: “As 2022 draws to a close, we have a world in which four separate geopolitical crises are unfolding in parallel.
“Whether it’s Vladimir Putin’s sense of impunity, Iran’s meddlesome and destabilising behaviour, North Korea’s outright belligerence or an increasingly authoritarian China.
“None of these challenges exist in isolation.
“Each is connected. Each represents a test of the rules which have guaranteed global security and enabled the spread of prosperity and opportunity throughout our lifetimes. And, in aggregate, are extraordinary and profound.”
