TOKYO — Japan continues to increase defense spending in response to increased threats from China and North Korea.
Over the past month, Japan has faced increased Chinese aggression toward Japanese territory and yet another North Korean missile launch into the Sea of Japan.
Cognizant of the challenges it faces, Japan has pushed forward to bolster its national security through increased defense spending, engaging in closer cooperation with the U.S. and South Korea and eliminating a ban on lethal weapons exports.
“China is conducting broad spectrum, total warfare and information warfare against a number of countries, but Japan consumes a lot of Chinese resources and attention.” Lance Gatling of Nexial Research told Fox News Digital. Gatling is a retired U.S. Army Japan strategic planner and former U.S. Department of Defense liaison officer to the Japanese Self-Defense Forces Joint Staff Office.
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Japan continues to increase defense spending in response to increased threats from China and North Korea. (David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Adding to the regional tensions, China announced it is ramping up its territorial claims over the Japanese Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. The Senkaku Islands are a group of uninhabited islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea that China lays claim to. Aside from providing natural resources, their location is considered strategically important.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea responded to China’s recent moves to occupy the territory in a joint statement following the inaugural trilateral Indo-Pacific Dialogue in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.
The joint statement said, in part, “Recalling the publicly announced positions of the three countries regarding the recent dangerous and escalatory behavior supporting unlawful maritime claims by the PRC in the East China Sea, they strongly reiterated their firm commitment to international law, including the freedom of navigation and overflight, as reflected in the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, and they opposed any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion anywhere in the waters of the Indo-Pacific.”
Japan is expanding its defense capabilities through stronger military ties with friends and allies. (David Mareuil/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Gatling noted some other ways China is antagonizing Japan.
“You can see their efforts in intimidating Japanese companies doing business in China,” Gatling said.
He mentioned, as an example, “China’s arrest, trial and conviction of a long-term Japanese pharmaceutical company Japanese citizen executive without explanation, as well as its threatening to limit exports of rare earth materials such as gallium and lithium, critical to Japan’s manufacturers of semiconductors, electric motors/drives, etc.”
Gatling spoke of “increased numbers and intensity of Chinese incursions into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, particularly by commercial fishing boats escorted by Chinese Coast Guard or Fisheries patrol vessels around the contested Senkaku Islands.”
China is also linking cooperation or military pressure against the Philippines to cooperation with the Japan Self-Defense Force and Ministry of Defense. They are increasing the scale and frequency of bilateral Chinese-Russian military operations in the waters adjacent to and surrounding Japan, including the transit of international straits between Japanese islands with large, integrated naval and aviation assets.”
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constitution in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Photograph: Mark R Cristino/EPA
In addition to increasing its defense budget in response to these threats, Japan is expanding its defense capabilities through stronger military ties with friends and allies. Japan agreed to a missile data-sharing and military training program with the United States and South Korea.
China is not the only player sounding alarm bells for Japan. North Korea, whose foreign policy interests often align with China, is also on Japan’s radar.
Fox News Digital recently reported that China is bolstering its relations with North Korea in a multifaceted way, calling 2024 the “year of DPRK-China friendship.” “DPRK” is an abbreviation of “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the official name of the North Korean state.
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“North Korea cannot turn on its lights, cannot feed its people, cannot trade with the world, yet it has the ability to produce high-technology military equipment using computer chips and components that can only come from one country — China,” Jonathan Bass of energy consultant InfraGlobal Partners told Fox News Digital.
Last month, North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile 250 kilometers northwest of Okushiri Island in Hokkaido, Japan, according to Japan’s Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Defense Shingo Miyake. In a press conference Dec. 18, Miyake said the missile likely had a range of 15,000 kilometers, making it able to reach the United States.
North Korea, whose foreign policy interests often align with China, is also on Japan’s radar. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Following the missile launch, the Pentagon and its Japanese and South Korean counterparts “announced that they have fully activated a real-time missile warning data sharing mechanism and jointly established a multi-year trilateral exercise plan.”
The Pentagon statement noted, “The three countries will continue to build upon their cooperation to respond to regional challenges and ensure peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.”
Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida strongly condemned the missile launch, saying, “This sort of missile launch is not only a clear violation of U.N. security resolutions but also a threat to peace and stability in the region.”
Gatling told Fox News Digital the missile data-sharing program is an important step in defense cooperation between the three nations, and it could help protect the U.S. from a missile attack. He explained how shared data from South Korea could be used not only to protect Japan but also the mainland United States from a potential attack.
Chinese President Xi Jinping talks with Kim Jong Un in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, May 7-8. (Xinhua/Ju Peng via Getty Images)
“Both Japan and South Korea take missile defense very seriously. Unfortunately, heretofore Japan and South Korea’s military cooperation has been very limited,” Gatling said.
He noted that arguments over historic incidents between the two nations have, in part, been a barrier to cooperation but that North Korea’s increased missile and nuclear capabilities have given cause for the two nations to work together.
“North Korean ballistic missile capabilities in types of mobile medium and long-range ballistic missiles can now reach all of the Korean peninsula, all of Japan’s scattered islands, U.S. military bases in the Pacific and, lately, even the continental United States,” Gatling explained.
“When coupled with its demonstrated capability of producing and exploding nuclear devices, the concern is that eventually North Korea will master or procure the technology to miniaturize nuclear warheads to fit in one or more of the range of ballistic missiles they have and have tested.”
Japan agreed to a missile data-sharing and military training program with the United States and South Korea. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)
Gatling warned that China and Russia strategically take advantage of North Korea’s aggression.
“While North Korean propaganda states that it develops all this technology on its own, it is clear that North Korea gets advanced technology and necessary materials and equipment from China and Russia and smuggles critical material despite United Nations sanctions. It is clear China and Russia take advantage of North Korean antagonism against South Korea, Japan and the U.S. to draw resources and attention away from their own capabilities.”
Fox News’ Emily Robertson contributed to this report.
Japanese Cabinet Approves Largest Ever Defense Budget
Japan’s Cabinet on Friday approve a record 7.95 trillion yen or $55.9 billion defence budget for Fiscal Year 2024, which begins on April 1 next year. The amount represents a 16.5 percent increase from FY2023’s budget of 6.8 trillion yen or $47.7 billon with the budget for each fiscal year to increase until it reaches 8.9 trillion yen or $62.5 billion in FY2027 thus making each fiscal year defence budget until 2027 continuously the highest ever recorded.
The Japanese government had set a goal of spending 43 trillion yen or $302 billion on defence in the timeframe of 2023-2027. The Cabinet also approved a loosening of export restrictions allowing Japan to supply complete lethal weapons and munitions to other countries under certain conditions.
The FY2024 budget allocates 1.247 trillion yen or $8.78 billion to integrated air and missile defense capabilities. Missile defense has been an increasing priority for Japan in recent years due to North Korea’s increasing advancement in ballistic missile capabilities and North Korean pronouncement that it would not hesitate to use such weapons against its enemies. Among the items allocated under such are the two Aegis System Equipped Vessels (ASEV) destroyers which have a funding allocation of 373.1 billion yen or $2.6 billion which will cover construction of the first vessel in FY2024 and preliminary costs for the second ship which will begin construction in FY2025.
Japan Defense Minister Minoru Kihara had earlier announced the securing of FY 2024 funding for the ASEV on Tuesday. The first ship is expected to be commissioned in 2027 with the second ASEV will enter service the following year. Japan’s MOD stated in its FY2024 budget document that they expect that the acquisition cost for the destroyers will be 392 billion yen or $2.75 billion per ship. Also allocated under that category is 75.7 billion yen or $532.4 million for joint development with the United States of a Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI). The remaining funding in this category covers the cost associated with in-service air defense and interceptor missile systems such as the PAC-3 Patriot, SM-3 Block IIA and SM-6 missiles.
734 billion yen or $5.16 billion has been allocated for stand-off defense capabilities with the MOD’s FY2024 budget document stating that this capability will be strengthen to deal with naval vessels and landing forces that invade Japan, including its islands. The items covered under this category include development, acquisition and expansion of production facilities for domestically produced missiles and guided munitions and acquisition. It also covers the acquisition of the Joint Strike Missile (JSM) and Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) along with the cost of adding Tomahawk cruise missile launch capabilities to Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) ships. Japan plans to field Tomahawk cruise missiles in FY2025.
The budget also called for 125 billion yen or $786.5 million eight F-35A fighters while 128.2 billion yen or $900 million was allocated for seven F-35Bs with a temporary F-35B squadron set up at Nyutabaru Air Base in 2024. Although the F-35Bs will operate from the two Izumo class destroyer carriers, the Japan Air Self Defense Force will be operating the aircraft instead of the JMSDF’s Fleet Air Force.
Along with the ASEV, the FY2024 budget provides for the construction of the first two of a new class of frigates displacing 4,800 tons which will also be equipped with long range missiles and improved anti-submarine warfare capabilities. The new frigate class follows on from the 3,900 tons Mogami class frigates, which had been cut down to 12 from a planned total of 22 ships due to Japan deciding a larger and more capable frigate was required. A total of 12 of the new frigate class is planned to be procured. The FY2024 budget also provides for an eighth Taigei-class attack submarine, a new 14,500-ton fleet oiler, 3 improved P-1 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) and six SH-60L helicopters.
Funding has been provided for a new tri-service maritime transportation group along with three 114-foot transports for the group to operate to enable rapid transportation of troops in Japan’s southwest region which includes the disputed Senkaku Islands. A permanent joint command, tentatively known as the Joint Operations Command comprising of 240 personnel headed by a four-star rank officer is to be established in Ichigaya, Tokyo, where the Ministry of Defense is also located, by the end of FY2024 according to the budget document. The budget document stated that the lack of a joint command had among other things, made it difficult for the Japanese military to coordinate with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and the use of a temporary joint task force made it difficult to respond seamlessly to changing situations.
Also on Friday, Japan’s cabinet approved a loosening of export restrictions allowing it to supply complete lethal weapons and munitions to other countries under certain conditions. Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi in his daily press briefing that day stated that under the new adjustment to defence exports, the cabinet had approved the transfer of Patriot missiles manufactured in Japan under license to the United States.
The Japan manufactured Patriots are to replenish U.S. stocks that have been transferred to the Ukraine. Japan’s regulations for defence exports forbid the exports of weapons to countries at war and all Japan arms exports to a country require Japan’s approval if the country wishes to transfer the equipment to another country. At moment, the current conditions of the loosening of exports of Japanese arms and munitions only cover exports of items manufactured under license to the country of origin of the license, the U.K. is said to be interested in obtaining 155mm artillery rounds from Japan which are manufactured under licence from U.K. company BAE as the U.K. seeks to replenish it stocks following donations of such to Ukraine.
