Reference: Forbes
TOKYO-Troubled with increasingly belligerent regional overtures by China, Japan continues expanding its defense spending and building a legal framework for new wartime functionalities in keeping with their post-World War II treaty obligations curtailing military capabilities.
In meetings with the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the newly-formed National Security Council, officials outlined the rationale for these shifts during my trip to Japan with the The Kakehashi Project, a government-funded exchange. After 10 years of declining Japanese military spending, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began expanding funding last fiscal year and is projected to continue bolstering equipment acquisitions over the next 10 years. The buildup in part offsets reductions in U.S. military spending under the sequester and other budget reductions (though the Japanese government funds U.S. military bases on its soil, cuts by the U.S. military affect its overall capacity).
One senior Defense official ranked the top three countries of security concern to Japan: China, Russia and North Korea. China’s coast guard patrols near the Senkaku Islands (which the Chinese call the Diaoyu Islands) are particularly concerning for Japanese authorities, along with Chinese altercations with Vietnam and the Philippines. What’s troubling is that high-level talks with Chinese military officials have been scaled back, not by Japan’s choosing.
Abe announced his efforts to increase regional coordination with Russia, Vietnam and the Philippines as a counterweight to China, though Takaaki Asano, an analyst with The Tokyo Foundation think tank in Japan, pointed out that this collaboration is constrained by Japan’s treaty stipulations curtailing its ability to offer back up military support.
Relations between Japan and South Korea have been strained due to complaints about Japanese reparations for the decades-past occupation of South Korea. Japan feels it has more than adequately compensated victims, including so-called Korean “comfort women” forced to serve Japanese soldiers. Asano called for a separation of policy from politics as a way to collaborate better against the North Korean nuclear threat.
“There’s a sense of apology fatigue in Japan,” Asano said.
TOKYO-Troubled with increasingly belligerent regional overtures by China, Japan continues expanding its defense spending and building a legal framework for new wartime functionalities in keeping with their post-World War II treaty obligations curtailing military capabilities.
In meetings with the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the newly-formed National Security Council, officials outlined the rationale for these shifts during my trip to Japan with the The Kakehashi Project, a government-funded exchange. After 10 years of declining Japanese military spending, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began expanding funding last fiscal year and is projected to continue bolstering equipment acquisitions over the next 10 years. The buildup in part offsets reductions in U.S. military spending under the sequester and other budget reductions (though the Japanese government funds U.S. military bases on its soil, cuts by the U.S. military affect its overall capacity).
One senior Defense official ranked the top three countries of security concern to Japan: China, Russia and North Korea. China’s coast guard patrols near the Senkaku Islands (which the Chinese call the Diaoyu Islands) are particularly concerning for Japanese authorities, along with Chinese altercations with Vietnam and the Philippines. What’s troubling is that high-level talks with Chinese military officials have been scaled back, not by Japan’s choosing.
Abe announced his efforts to increase regional coordination with Russia, Vietnam and the Philippines as a counterweight to China, though Takaaki Asano, an analyst with The Tokyo Foundation think tank in Japan, pointed out that this collaboration is constrained by Japan’s treaty stipulations curtailing its ability to offer back up military support.
Relations between Japan and South Korea have been strained due to complaints about Japanese reparations for the decades-past occupation of South Korea. Japan feels it has more than adequately compensated victims, including so-called Korean “comfort women” forced to serve Japanese soldiers. Asano called for a separation of policy from politics as a way to collaborate better against the North Korean nuclear threat.
“There’s a sense of apology fatigue in Japan,” Asano said.
