The Japanese government plans to deploy surface-to-air missiles on one of its remote western islands near Taiwan by March 2031, the nation’s defense minister said on Tuesday.
It is the first time Japan has specified the timing of the deployment. The defense ministry in 2022 announced a plan to ramp up air defenses on the island, which already hosts a Japanese military base.
Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said at a regular news conference in Tokyo that the deployment on Yonaguni island would take place in the 2030 fiscal year, which ends in March of the following calendar year.
Photo: AFP
The comments come during a months-long row between Japan and China, with Beijing on Tuesday announcing that it was imposing export restrictions on dozens of Japanese firms that it said were involved in building up the nation’s military.
Koizumi, who visited Yonaguni in November last year, said that the ministry would hold a briefing for local residents next week on the island that is 110km east of Taiwan and 1,900km southwest of Tokyo.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in November last year suggested that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
Since Takaichi made the remark, Beijing has discouraged Chinese nationals from visiting Japan, which hit tourism, one of the pillars of the Japanese economy.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) earlier this month said at the Munich Security Conference that forces in Japan were seeking to “revive militarism.”
Takaichi on Friday last week told the Japanese parliament that China was intensifying attempts to change the “status quo by force or coercion” in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, and has said that Japan needs to strengthen its defense capabilities.
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