Japan approves major defence overhaul, warning of China threats

SpaceWar.com reports: “Japan’s government approved a major defence policy overhaul Friday, including a significant spending hike, as it warned China poses the ‘greatest strategic challenge ever’ to its security.

In its largest defence shake-up in decades, Japan vowed to increase security spending to two percent of GDP by 2027, reshape its military command, and acquire new missiles that can strike far-flung enemy launch sites.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a news conference he was ‘determined to remain resolute in our mission to protect and defend the nation and its people, at this turning point in history’.

‘In our neighbouring countries and regions, the strengthening of nuclear missile capabilities, rapid military build-up and attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force have become even more pronounced,’ he said, evoking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an example of the changing times.

Polls suggest Japan’s public largely backs the shift, but the changes could still be controversial because Japan’s post-war constitution does not officially recognise the military and limits it to nominally self-defensive capabilities…”

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