TOKYO – Japan is to reorient its defence strategy to counter the rise of China.
It will boost its armed forces after the cabinet yesterday approved new guidelines which also call for a stronger alliance with the US – Japan’s biggest ally – and expanded security networks with partners like South Korea and Australia.
Traditionally, Japan has concentrated on the cold war threat of Russia.
Japan will acquire new submarines and fighter jets, upgrade its missile defence capabilities and make its ground forces more mobile so they can react quickly to emergencies in the southwest of the country.
While it has forces for self-defence, the country’s pacifist constitution, drafted by the US after the second World War, prevent it from sending troops into combat overseas.
The guidelines paint China as a bigger threat than Russia and state that Japan is shifting defence emphasis from the northern island of Hokkaido to islands in the south, such as Okinawa and territories claimed by Tokyo and Beijing that have recently led to diplomatic tensions.
China immediately criticised the guidelines as “irresponsible”.
The Japan-US alliance remains “indispensable” to Japan’s security, a statement noted, calling for stronger co-operation between Japanese and the 47,000 US armed forces in the country.
But it also noted a relative decline of America’s strength and rise of emerging countries such as China and India. Japan, meanwhile, should pursue its own efforts to enhance missile defence capabilities to protect itself from threats by China and North Korea, it stated.
The new strategy document also noted North Korea’s military activity is a “pressing and serious destabilising factor” for Japan.
In Beijing, officials said Tokyo was wrong in seeing China as a threat.
China insists on following the “road of peaceful development” and upholds a military policy that is entirely defensive in nature, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing deteriorated quickly over a long-standing dispute concerning islands in the East China Sea, called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, after a September 7th collision between a Chinese fishing boat and Japanese coast guard vessels. – (AP)