China’s growing military might has replaced North Korean belligerence as the main security threat to Japan, according to Tokyo’s annual defense review, which the Cabinet approved yesterday, despite signs that Pyongyang could have nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
The document’s security assessment on China came after a section on Japan’s ally, the US, the first time Beijing has achieved second place in the annual defense white paper and pushing North Korea into third position.
Russia, deemed by Japan as its primary threat during the Cold War, was in fourth place.
“The reality is that China is rapidly increasing military spending, and so people can grasp that we need more pages,” Japanese Minister of Defense Taro Kono told a media briefing. “China is deploying air and sea assets in the Western Pacific and through the Tsushima Strait into the Sea of Japan with greater frequency.”
Japan has raised defense spending by one-10th over the past seven years to counter military advances by Beijing and Pyongyang, including defenses against North Korean missiles that might carry nuclear warheads, the paper said.
North Korea has this year conducted short-range missile launches that Tokyo believes show Pyongyang is developing projectiles to evade Japan’s Aegis ballistic missile defense systems.
To stay ahead of China’s modernizing military, Japan is buying US-made stealth fighters and other advanced weapons.
In its latest budget request, Japan’s military asked for ￥115.6 billion (US$1.07 billion) to buy nine Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth jets, including six short take-off and vertical landing variants to operate from converted helicopter carriers.
The stealth jets, US-made interceptor missiles and other equipment are part of a proposed 1.2 percent increase in defense spending to a record ￥5.32 trillion in the year starting April 1.
Chinese military spending is this year expected to rise by 7.5 percent from last year to about US$177 billion, more than three times that of Japan.
Beijing is developing weapons, including stealth fighters and aircraft carriers, that are helping it expand the range and scope of its military operations.
Once largely confined to operating close to the Chinese coast, Beijing now routinely sends its air and sea patrols near Japan’s western Okinawa Islands and into the Western Pacific.
China has frequently rebuffed concerns about its military spending and intentions, including an increased presence in the disputed South China Sea, saying that it only desires peaceful development.
Chinese patrols in waters and skies near Japanese territory are “a national security concern,” the white paper said.
The paper downgraded fellow US ally South Korea, which has pulled out of an intelligence-sharing pact with Japan amid a spat over their shared wartime history.
That could weaken efforts to contain North Korean threats, analysts said.
Other partners, including Australia, ASEAN and India, feature more prominently in the defense paper.
“It’s a reflection of the level of cooperation we undertake with each partner,” a Japanese Ministry of Defense official said at an earlier briefing.
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