Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years.
The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea.
“Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said.
Photo: Kyodo News via AP
“This is an extremely important initiative for strengthening Japan’s deterrence and response capabilities,” he said.
The surface-to-ship guided missile system has a range of about 1,000km, putting parts of the Chinese mainland within reach — Shanghai is about 900km from Kumamoto.
Koizumi also said a “hyper velocity gliding projectile,” designed to defend remote islands from enemy forces, had been deployed in Shizuoka, another coastal area closer to Tokyo which faces the Pacific.
Japan has long had a policy to use its military only for self-defense in its most strict meaning, but Tokyo has been steadily building up its defense capacity as regional neighbors, including China, Russia and North Korea, increase their military activities in the region.
Japan in 2022 approved a plan to deploy missiles with counterattack capability.
“If we continue to rely solely on ballistic missile defense ... it will become increasingly difficult to fully address the threat” of missiles with advanced technologies, a white paper issued last year said.
China is beefing up its military and is engaged in a number of territorial disputes with other nations in the region, including Japan over the Senkaku Islands, known as the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) in China. They are also claimed by Taiwan.
Japan’s ties with Beijing have soured after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in November last year said that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
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