TOKYO (Dispatches) - Japan will develop and mass produce a cruise missile and a high-velocity ballistic missile, it said on Wednesday, as it seeks the ability to strike more distant targets as part of a military expansion.
The procurement plan unveiled in the defense ministry’s annual budget request was short on detail but represents a clear departure from a decades-long range limit imposed on Japan’s constitutionally-constrained Self-Defense Force.
“China continues to threaten to use force to unilaterally change the status quo and is deepening its alliance with Russia,” the ministry claimed in its budget request.
Tokyo also has long-running territorial disputes with Beijing and Moscow – over the Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China, and the Northern Territories, known as the Kuril islands in Russia.
The defense ministry also mentioned the risk to Japan posed by North Korea, which has carried out an unprecedented number of weapons tests this year.
The ministry said it will only be able to release details of the spending after December when the government is due to adopt a new national security strategy, which is being revised to reinforce Japan’s military capability over the next five years.
Japan has already been strengthening its security alliance with the United States, a key ally, and expanding military cooperation with friendly nations in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.
Critics worry the missile upgrades – and the potential use of preemptive attacks – would fundamentally change Japan’s defense policy and potentially breach the post-war pacifist Constitution that limits the use of force to self-defense.
Only a partial sum of 5.6 trillion yen ($40.4bn) was disclosed for 2023, but the ministry’s budget plan could rise to about 6.5 trillion yen ($47bn), up 20 percent from this year, Japanese media said.