Reading Japan’s National Security Strategy

In December 2022, Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio announced a new defense posture of Japan and published the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Program. He startled many by declaring that Japan would double its defense budget. It will make Japan’s defense budget the biggest in the world only after the United States and China. He also announced that Japan will acquire serious counter offensive capabilities, namely intermediate range missiles. This big shift was not a choice, but a necessity, seeing China’s tremendous and surprisingly speedy military buildup. China, oppressing not only Uighurs, Tibetans, and inner Mongolians domestically, but also suppressing freedom in Hong Kong and changing the status quo in the East and China Seas, took on the US allies by taking Scarborough Reef from the Philippines and sending Haijing patrol boats regularly to violate the territorial sea of the Senkaku Islands of Japan in 2012. This article explains the main points and background of the new Japanese strategic thinking.