Japan is mulling upgrades to five airports and 11 ports for use during military emergencies, including a potential “Taiwan contingency,” the Mainichi Shimbun reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed government official.
The list of designated hubs includes Kitakyushu Airport off Kyushu, Naha Airport in Okinawa, the Port of Kushiro in Hokkaido and the Port of Ishigaki in Okinawa, which is about 230km east of Taiwan, the newspaper reported.
Nearly half of the facilities slated for improvement are in Kyushu and Okinawa, reflecting Tokyo’s apparent concern for the security of its outlying southwestern islands and possibly a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, it said.
Photo: Screen grab from Naha Airport’s X account
The plan is expected to be approved soon at a Cabinet meeting to allow work to begin in April next year, with an anticipated budget of ￥35 billion (US$231.26 million) for the first year, it said.
The 2022 edition of Japan’s National Security Strategy stipulated that the nation should lengthen runways at airports and add quays at ports to improve their serviceability to military aircraft and warships.
As of August last year, 33 facilities in 10 prefectures were being considered, a list that was later narrowed to 16 facilities in seven prefectures where residents voted to approve the military’s presence, Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday.
The 16 facilities are to be used by the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Coast Guard as staging areas for personnel and supplies, refugee evacuation and humanitarian relief during natural disasters, Nikkei Asia reported.
The improved capacity of the facilities are also expected to provide a boost to tourism and commercial logistics, it said.
Tokyo had considered more facilities in Okinawa Prefecture, but canceled the plans amid opposition from local residents, it reported.
In other news, the US government has awarded a sole-source contract to upgrade Taiwan’s surveillance radar system that went online more than a decade ago, news Web site Breaking Defense said in a report on Tuesday.
A post on the US government’s procurement information Web site did not reveal the contract’s value, saying only that it was fixed and the contract would be implemented over 18 months, Breaking Defense said.
The upgrades aim to “increase the air surveillance capability for the system. This effort will further enhance the air surveillance mission software capabilities,” a US Air Force spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The radar infrastructure was designed to spot incoming ballistic and cruise missiles, and hostile aircraft, it said.
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