Japan is still considering deployment locations for its longer-range standoff missiles, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Tuesday, with the weapons planned to be stationed by the end of next March.

“Regarding the upgraded ground-launched Type-12 anti-ship missiles, we plan to deploy them starting in fiscal 2025,” Nakatani told a news conference. “However, the specific deployment locations are still under consideration and have not yet been decided.”

Nakatani’s remarks come after local media, citing unidentified government sources, reported that his ministry is finalizing a plan to deploy the missiles to the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Camp Kengun in Kumamoto Prefecture.

The move, intended to boost Japan’s deterrence capabilities, would come as the Chinese military ramps up its training near Japan’s far-flung islands near Taiwan and continues to exercise even further from China’s periphery and well into the Pacific Ocean.

The upgraded Type-12 missiles have a range of about 1,000 kilometers, putting Shanghai and much of the East China Sea — including the waters northeast of Taiwan — within striking distance. Nearly all of nuclear-armed North Korea would also fall within range.

Nakatani said the Defense Ministry “will continue to work toward building up Japan’s standoff defense capabilities more quickly, amid the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II.”

Japan’s 2022 National Security Strategy paved the way for the ostensibly pacifist country to acquire a controversial “counterstrike capability.” The government has long viewed the capability as constitutional so long as three conditions for the use of force are met: that an armed attack has occurred or is imminent; that there is no other way to halt an attack; and that the use of force is limited to the minimum necessary.

One option for this capability is to employ standoff missiles that allow it to attack from outside an enemy’s range. However, critics say the deployment sites would effectively turn them into retaliatory targets for enemies.

Asked Tuesday if the government will explain the plans to local residents prior to deployment, Nakatani said that it “will make adjustments as necessary.”