The new national defense guidelines and the record ¥27.47 trillion five-year defense spending plan, both adopted by the Cabinet this week, highlight the security threat to Japan from China's military buildup and call for beefing up the nation's defense in new domains of warfare such as cyberspace and outer space. They also feature plans to introduce equipment that can potentially be used to overstep Japan's "defense-only" posture, such as aircraft carriers and long-range cruise missiles capable of striking enemy bases. The government needs to make clear the true intentions behind their deployment.
The guidelines, updated for the first time since 2013 — and the second time under the current administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — set the policy for the nation's defense buildup over the next 10 years, and the midterm spending program, which outlines the specific spending and deployment of Self-Defense Forces hardware in line with the guidelines, represents an increase of ¥2.8 trillion from the current plan covering the period from 2014 to 2018.
Calling for building a "multi-dimensional joint defense force," the guidelines put emphasis on beefing up defense capabilities in the fields of cyberspace, outer space and electronic warfare that have the potential to "fundamentally change the shape of the nation's security" and stress the need for the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces to act flexibly across all kinds of domains. Abe emphasizes the need for a "complete departure" from the conventional concept of ground, sea and air forces, and calls for the reform of Japan's defense forces "at a speed fundamentally different from" the past.