Japan is recasting its national security vision in face of an aggressive China

Source: The post is based on an article “Japan is recasting its national security vision in face of an aggressive China. India must inject strategic content into ties during 2+2 dialogue” published in The Indian Express on 6^th September 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 – Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India

News: China’s growing military capabilities and fearless attitude on territorial disputes are at the heart of the deteriorating environment of India and Japan.

What is required by India and Japan in meeting common security challenges against China?

India has defence exchanges with Japan for nearly two decades.

They both share a common interest in keeping the Indo-Pacific “free and open” and been partners in the Quadrilateral forum but still their bilateral security cooperation remains underdeveloped.

It is required that Japan and India both should involve in strategic military partnership in order to counter China.

There is deep political resistance and bureaucratic inertia against effort to recast defence policies in both countries.

The recent 2+2 dialogue will be an opportunity to get a first-hand account from the Japanese leadership on Japan’s bold new plans to transform its military strategy and build on the common interest in preventing the rise of a new leadership in the Indo-Pacific.

What is the approach of Japan in tackling the threats from China?

Japan’s new strategy to cope with Chinese power involves three broad elements — reorienting Japan’s diplomacy, boosting national capabilities to prevent aggression and deepening defence partnerships.

Recently Japanese PM talked of a new “realism diplomacy”. It will allow Japan to meet the new security challenges through pragmatism and firmness. For that it has taken the following steps:

1) The Japanese PM has announced to increase budget on its defense from 1% to 2%.

2) A doubling of the defence allocation over the next few years, could make it the third-largest defence spender after the US and China.

3) Japan’s focus is on building “counter-strike” weapons to prevent Chinese aggression. China’s missile arsenals are growing but Japan does not have long-range missiles. Some experts in Japan are calling for the deployment of a thousand long-range missiles.

4) Japan is also looking to strengthen security partnerships with other like-minded countries such as Australia and India.

5) It is also promising to strengthen the defence capabilities of the Indo-Pacific countries, unilaterally as well as through the Quad.