Breaking Defense
BANGKOK — Japan is accelerating its acquisition of long-range missiles as part of a broader effort to improve its military capabilities in response to growing threats, particularly from China.
But while Tokyo continues to buy US weaponry and train closely with US forces, its defense investment plans face political and economic challenges at home, and the Trump administration’s approach to foreign policy and alliances has raised concerns in Tokyo about stability of the relationship on which those plans are based.
An expansion of Japan’s military capabilities “has been debated for quite some time,” but “this is the first time that we have proactively pursued on this scale” the kinds of missiles that will arrive in the coming years, Ken Jimbo, a professor at Japan’s Keio University, told Breaking Defense in Bangkok on March 13.
