Tokyo, 8 January, /AJMEDIA/
Japan’s recent decision to significantly increase its defense budget and acquire long-range strike capabilities should not be deemed as a “threat,” a U.S. State Department spokesman said, with concerns lingering that Japan’s move could trigger an arms race with China.
Reiterating that Washington applauds Japan’s commitment to “modernize” the bilateral alliance through increased investment and enhanced capabilities, Ned Price said Tokyo’s intention is to advance “a free and open Indo-Pacific,” a vision that the United States also shares.
“What Japan has announced in its new national security doctrine should not be perceived as a threat to anyone,” Price told a press conference Friday at the Foreign Press Center in Washington.
“This is just an effort on the part of our Japanese allies to position themselves to most effectively advance that vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific and to be positioned vis-a-vis those who have an alternative vision to our own vision.”
China has expressed opposition to Japan’s move, saying that it “provokes regional tension and confrontation.”
Under Japan’s new National Security Strategy and related documents endorsed in December, Japan will allocate about 43 trillion yen ($326 billion) for defense budgets over five years from fiscal 2023, setting a target of boosting yearly defense spending to around 2 percent of gross domestic product in fiscal 2027.
Japan will also seek to acquire “counterstrike capabilities,” potentially enabling direct attacks against another country’s territory. Until now, the close U.S. ally has so far opted not to acquire such capabilities in light of its pacifist Constitution.
Some Japanese experts on China and security issues, however, have expressed concerns that Japan’s major shift in its postwar security policy could ignite a new arms race in the region, where China remains assertive and North Korea continues to advance its nuclear and missile programs.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is set to travel to the United States to meet President Joe Biden on Jan. 13, a meeting that is certain to showcase the strength of the alliance based on the country’s new National Security Strategy.
