Japan's Defense Strategy Reflects "Challenging Thinking" Military | Japan | Strategy

Release time:Apr 14, 2024 14:54 PM

[Reporter's Connection]

Recently, Japan has taken frequent actions in advancing its defense strategy.The 2023 edition of Japan's Defense White Paper blatantly positions China as Japan's "greatest strategic challenge" ever. Analysis has pointed out that Japan's "comprehensive attack" in the application and construction of military capabilities precisely reflects Japan's "challenging thinking" in defense strategy.

Strengthening military capabilities through relying on the United States

The Japanese government, encouraged and supported by the United States, significantly increased its defense budget and expanded its military power on a large scale. Japan's goal is to pursue a "great power strategy", hoping to become a strong country again in politics and military, and ultimately become a comprehensive global power.

In March of this year, the Japanese Senate passed the 2023 fiscal year budget, which increased defense spending to over 6.82 trillion yen, 1.26 times the amount of the 2022 fiscal year, setting a historical record. In order to ensure the financial source of this defense budget, the Japanese government has also proposed the "Defense Finance Special Measures Act", which was passed in the Japanese House of Representatives on May 23. According to Japanese media reports, the Japanese government and ruling party alliance have recently begun discussing the possibility of increasing the total defense budget expenditure over the next five years to over 40 trillion yen. Once the defense budget of 40 trillion yen is implemented, the total expenditure growth of the defense budget will reach 45.6%. Many Japanese people have pointed out that the current trend of the Japanese government is clearly to transform the "self-defense forces" that specialize in defense into military forces set up for war, which goes against the will of the people and will increase their burden, which is unacceptable.

In terms of military actions, from June 7th to 10th this year, the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force conducted a four-day joint exercise with the US and French navies in the Pacific and East China Sea. According to Japanese media reports, this is the sixth joint exercise among the three countries and the first time a US aircraft carrier has participated. Meanwhile, Japan also frequently interacts with NATO. Starting from June 12th, NATO's "Air Guard 2023" military exercise was held in Germany and other countries. This exercise is claimed to be the largest NATO air military exercise in history, with 25 countries led by the United States participating. It is worth noting that, apart from Sweden, which is currently applying to join NATO, Japan is the only non NATO member country among these 25 countries. In addition, from July 1st to 10th, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force dispatched destroyers and submarines to the waters surrounding Guam to conduct a joint military exercise with the maritime military forces of the United States, Australia, and South Korea, codenamed "Pacific Pioneer".

An analysis suggests that Japan has a very famous "elliptical philosophy", which states that an ellipse with two focal points is more stable than a circle with only one focal point. Previous Japanese Prime Ministers have attempted to pursue multilateral cooperation and seek close cooperation with multiple countries to balance excessive dependence on the United States, achieve autonomy and multilateralism, but ultimately failed to break free from the cycle of dependence on the United States. From the perspective of Fumio Kishida's governance style, Japan's strategic inclination is more inclined towards a "single focus philosophy", which is to build a closer alliance system with the United States, with the United States as the main focus, and to rely more on cooperation with the United States, strengthen cooperation with the United States, and focus Japan's diplomatic cooperation on security and defense cooperation with the United States. In order to achieve this "single focus philosophy", Japan has increased its level of security cooperation with countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, strengthened its relationship with NATO, and conducted joint military exercises with countries such as France and Germany. In addition, Japan has strengthened bilateral relations with countries such as South Korea and Australia, attempting to build a "grid based" alliance system with the United States as the "axis" in the Asia Pacific region.

Expanding military deployment through the "China threat"

Japan's 2023 version of the Defense White Paper positioned China as Japan's "biggest unprecedented strategic challenge", saying that China has significantly increased defense spending, accelerated military development, "unilaterally changed the status quo" in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and China and Russia have carried out joint operations in the sea and airspace around Japan, and that military activities on the Chinese Mainland threaten peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. It is not difficult to see that the 2023 version of the Defense White Paper is undoubtedly a rehash of the "China threat theory". In fact, the 2022 version of the Defense White Paper loudly advocates for the "China threat", while the 2023 version of the Defense White Paper continues to portray the "China threat" and its wording is even stronger than the 2022 version's "strong concern".

Since the beginning of this year, Japan has accelerated the construction of ammunition depots and bases in the southwestern islands, continuously strengthening its mobile deployment and sustained combat capabilities. According to reports, on July 20th, the Japanese Ministry of Defense held a residents' briefing in Kitatoshi Village, Okinawa Prefecture, stating that the Air Self Defense Force will deploy a mobile surveillance and control radar unit on the upper part of Kitatoshi Island, about 360 kilometers away from Okinawa, to strengthen control over the air situation in the East China Sea beyond Okinawa. According to Japanese media reports, the Maritime Self Defense Force is verifying the MQ-9B "Sea Guard" drone produced by General Motors of the United States, and plans to establish a "manned+unmanned" 24-hour maritime surveillance system by 2024.

Regarding the 2023 version of the Defense White Paper, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense recently stated in response to questions from reporters that Japan's new version of the Defense White Paper adheres to its erroneous understanding of China, deliberately portrays the so-called "Chinese military threat", smears and hypes up the normal development and military activities of the Chinese military, violently interferes in China's internal affairs, and provokes regional tensions. We firmly oppose this and have made solemn representations to the Japanese side.

The spokesperson emphasized that the Chinese military has always been a steadfast force in maintaining world peace and stability, never challenging anyone, let alone threatening anyone. On the contrary, in recent years, Japan has continuously broken through the constraints of the "Peace Constitution" and the principle of "dedicated defense", significantly increased defense spending, advocated the development of so-called "counterattack capabilities", and went further and further on the path of military expansion, following individual major powers to form targeted "small circles", posing serious challenges to regional and world peace, security, and stability.

Make full preparations for intervening in Taiwan Strait affairs

One is to develop long-range missiles. In the 2023 version of the Defense White Paper, seven key areas of defense expenditure have been added, namely defense capabilities outside the defense zone, joint air defense and missile defense capabilities, unmanned equipment defense capabilities, cross domain combat capabilities, command and control and intelligence capabilities, mobile deployment and protection of national capabilities, and sustainability and resilience. The so-called "defense capability outside the defense zone" is actually the development of long-range missiles, attempting to intervene in Taiwan Strait affairs. The Japanese side believes that this capability can enable the Japanese Self Defense Force to respond to enemy forces without being attacked.

The second is to upgrade network attack capabilities. Japan has regarded cyber attacks as a "rehearsal for military attacks".Japan will follow the practices of the United States and most NATO countries, evaluate the extent of damage, and decide on the appropriate way to counterattack based on the situation.

The third is to further promote the participation of private enterprises in military equipment research and development. Drawing on the lessons of the Ukrainian crisis, the Japanese Ministry of Defense will recently hold discussions with approximately 100 high-tech enterprises listed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, Industry, and Industry, to transform the space, network, artificial intelligence and other technologies owned by private enterprises into short-term equipment or medium - to long-term military research and development. The Japanese Ministry of Defense has decided to significantly increase the profits of military enterprises and encourage private enterprises to promote the development of the military industry.

The 2023 version of Japan's Defense White Paper rudely interferes in China's internal affairs, arbitrarily smears China's normal defense development and military activities in the sea and air, deliberately portrays the so-called "China threat", and creates regional tensions. China has expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to this, and has made solemn representations to Japan.

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