Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February and Western countries have imposed sanctions on Moscow, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been on a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia and Europe to bring world leaders together to defend democracy. Brought.
According to CNN, Kishida was not only trying to protect democracy in Ukraine, but also saw similarities between Russia’s actions in Europe and China’s expansion into the Indo-Pacific region.
“We strongly oppose any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force, regardless of location,” Kishida said in a joint statement with EU leaders in May.
The same statement contained a paragraph in which he expressed “grave concern about reports of militarization, coercion and intimidation in the South China Sea,” although he did not name China as an aggressor.
Japan’s position places the country in an increasingly unstable security environment, with China in the south, North Korea equipped with nuclear weapons in the west, and Russia in the north. As a result, the war in Ukraine has sparked debates about Japan’s national security that have never existed before.
China claims sovereignty over approximately 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, and has turned numerous cliffs and sand dunes – off its coast – into artificial islands that have been heavily reinforced by missiles, airport runways and weapons systems.
In April, members of Japan’s ruling party introduced a proposal to increase the country’s defense budget from 1% to 2% – according to NATO members – and to develop “counter-attack capabilities”, a move that marked major changes in Japan’s long-term Gives. The security situation is peaceful
But Tokyo is not only investing in self-defense, it is also using diplomacy to strengthen its ties in the region and beyond.
Ahead of Kishida meeting with US President Joe Biden on Monday, experts say the world’s third-largest economy is re-evaluating its approach to deterrence and emerging as a credible partner on the world stage.
Analysts say the United States expects Japan to play a stronger leadership role in the region, and Tokyo knows this will require a stronger defense.
“Japan understands that if it relies solely on the United States, it will not really maintain political trust between the two sides,” said Ken Jimbo, a national security expert and professor at QU University.
Kishida announced last December that the government was considering options to give Japan the ability to attack enemy bases. Since then, calls have intensified from within Japan’s ruling party to develop “counter-attack capabilities” in coordination with the United States.
The move is expected to expand the borders of the country’s peaceful constitution, but will increase Tokyo’s ability to respond to portable human and submarine attacks.
“Japan wants to be able to defend itself in war,” said Cleo Pascal, an India-Pacific strategist at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
Pascal noted that there is resistance inside the country against any departure from Japan’s peaceful position.
“Public opinion still considers Japan to be a peaceful country that should not be able to attack others and should only have sufficient tools to defend itself,” said James Brown, an international relations expert at Temple University. The government is moving more slowly. This. “
However, it seems that the war in Ukraine is changing attitudes. A recent poll by the Asahi Shinbon newspaper and the University of Tokyo found that 64 percent of the 3,000 people surveyed supported strengthening Japan’s defense, the highest percentage since the poll began in 2003.
Source: Lebanon Debate
