Japan continues its quiet defense revolution

[Valin]

AEIdeas:

Michael Auslin

December 1, 2014

 

An interesting piece on the “War is Boring” website catalogs the quiet revolution in Japanese defense spending that may change perceptions of Asia’s military balance. For decades, of course, attention has been paid to China’s dramatic and comprehensive military modernization and build-up. From a 1950’s-era armed forces to possibly the world’s second most powerful military, it has taken the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA), along with its naval and air arms, just two decades of double-digit growth to become a major security concern of the United States. Indeed, year after year, the Congressionally mandated China Economic and Security Review Commission warns about the steady developments in China’s naval, air, space, and ground forces. Buzzwords such as “anti-access/area-denial” enliven Washington think tank meetings, and are countered by grand sounding, but vague US ideas like “third offset strategy” or “Air-Sea Battle concept.”

 

Yet what matters is what is happening on the ground in Asia, and Japan is being steadily overlooked in the focus on China. As the “War is Boring” piece relates, under embattled Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, and his predecessor from the Democratic Party of Japan, Tokyo is going on a “buying spree,” confirming purchases of F-35 stealth fighters, buying the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and Global Hawk surveillance drone, upgrading its early warning aircraft, expanding its amphibious landing fleet, and building a second giant helicopter carrier, which I * discussed in my column in the Wall Street Journal last week.

 

None of this is happening in a policy vacuum, however. Among others, Kyle Mizokami wrote for the US Naval Institute last December on Tokyo’s Mid-Term Defense Plan, which translates into procurement and force structure goals the National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG). The NDPG itself is now derived generally from the National Security Strategy, the first of which was released last year. Looking at the defense budget, it is clear that Japan remains the only Asian power that can field a full set of military capabilities, even if its numbers are far smaller than that of the United States or China.

 

Japan does not have to be Asia’s biggest military, but it can compete technologically with anyone. Its armed forces, especially the Ground Self-Defense Forces, may have far less experience than the South Koreans, but neither does the PLA have much recent ground experience.............................(Snip)

 

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