Japan made public its annual white paper on security assessment on Tuesday, days after it sought a record defence budget of $59 billion for the next year. Japan’s defence ministry says that the Asia-Pacific region is facing “the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II”. This comes in the context of China-linked multiple territorial tensions in the region, especially around the South China Sea, on most parts of which Beijing claims its sovereign claim.
In the English version of the 572-page white paper, Japan’s Defence Minister Minoru Kihara sets out Tokyo’s defence plan with a warning that the international community has entered “a new era of crisis” and was facing “the greatest trial” since World War II.
Kihara refers to China’s military build-up and increasingly intensifying activities in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and the rest of the Pacific as one of the greatest strategic challenges to Japan.
What Japan says about security threats
The white paper emphasises that the existing international order is under unprecedented threat. It says that the rapid military buildup by China, particularly in the East China Sea (around the Senkaku Islands) and the broader Pacific region, has challenged Japan’s security.
“The international community has entered a new era of crisis. It is now facing its greatest trial since the end of World War II. The existing order is being seriously challenged. Japan finds itself in the most severe and complex security environment of the post-war era,” the white paper says.
It also talks about the advancement of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, along with continued ballistic missile launches, seen as a direct threat. Japan points to Russia’s intensified military activities in the Far East, including near Japan’s Northern Territories, and its ongoing aggression in Ukraine, often in collaboration with China.
“China has been rapidly building up military capabilities while intensifying its activities in the East China Sea, where the waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands are, as well as in the Pacific,” it says.
This also comes against the backdrop of Russia-North Korea defence cooperation agreements, signed during Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Hermit Kingdom in June this year amid deepening Chinese military backing to Moscow as the Ukraine war rages on.
“Russia has also been observed engaging in joint activities with China involving aircraft and vessels,” Japan’s defence ministry says.
How it threatens global peace
The white paper shows Japan’s sense of urgency that its security challenges and those faced by the international community are of a scale that could severely disrupt global peace and stability. Japan’s defence ministry says its efforts are aimed at essential not only securing its national defence but also directed at maintaining the broader international order.
Japan says that Beijing is pushing “intensifying changes to the status quo by force” in the entire region, including in the East China and South China Sea. Tokyo fears that an armed conflict over Taiwan is most likely to spill over to Japan.
China considers Taiwan one of its provinces but Taipei has independent diplomatic relations with a host of countries. But China is insistent on reuniting Taiwan with the mainland, even by the use of military power. Alarmed over China’s military manoeuvring around Taiwan, Japan has been deploying more troops and military equipment to its outlying islands close to Taiwan.
The South China Sea is currently the major boiling pot in the region. And China’s sweeping claims of sovereignty over it is intricately linked to its estimated 11 billion barrels of untapped oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
This claim by China has triggered conflicts with other claimants Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. They keep negotiating deals with China — as they have since the 1970s — but no permanent solution has been found to the question as to who possesses the right to exploit rich natural resources and fishing areas in which jurisdictional territory. China objects to almost everyone’s territorial and economic claims.
The failure of Chinese and Southeast Asian leaders to diplomatically resolve the disputes in the South China Sea has the potential to undermine international peace as the competing powers — particularly the biggest global naval power China — show little regard to laws governing maritime disputes. This has led to destabilising arms buildups in the Pacific region.
What Japan prescribes as strategic response
Japan is reinforcing its defence capabilities and accelerating its military build-up, prioritising the acquisition of stand-off missiles, including Tomahawk missiles and upgraded Type-12 surface-to-ship missiles, as well as enhancing its Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) systems.
The white paper also talks about the need for strengthening alliances, particularly with the United States, which has been described as the cornerstone of Japan’s security policy. Japan is also deepening its cooperation with other like-minded countries to ensure regional stability and promote the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” vision.
Among the defence alliances is the Quad that is a defence dialogue forum of four nations — Australia, India, Japan and the US. The four countries regularly conduct joint military exercises in the Indo-Pacific region.
China has detested the growing defence understanding among the four major powers of the region. Incidentally, China is engaged in border disputes with India and Japan, strategic rivalry with the US, and an intense trade war with Australia, which has repeatedly recognised Beijing’s assertiveness in Oceania as a challenge to its security.
Japan’s white paper also focuses on the need for multilateral cooperation for real-time security data sharing such as information about missile warning particularly with the US, South Korea and Australia.
With the fresh budgetary push, Japan looks to fortify its southwestern islands against the threats from China by next year. The nearly $60 billion budgeted money would be spent on developing and acquiring new drones, missiles, satellites, cyber defence and cloud-based command and control systems.
But Japan’s defence push is not being welcomed by China, whose state-controlled media has described Tokyo’s hiked military expenditure plan as “militarism resurgence” — in a reminder to Tokyo’s military expeditions and aggressions before and during World War II.