https://apnews.com/article/japan-military-budget-us-australia-china-f82c70bd6f5cbfc184f15cf17f2fde21
Following World War 2, the Japanese disbanded all of their military forces becoming a disarmed nation. However in 1954 the Japanese Self Defense forces were established, a small army and navy barely enough to defend the home islands, but nowhere large enough to launch offensive campaigns. Over the years as Japan has distanced itself from its dark past the Japanese Defense Forces have grown in size, for example the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Forces have become the 6th largest navy in the world and the 2nd largest in Asia. Japan just recently announced their Defense force budget for 2025 and it is one of the highest increases since its creation in 1954. The 2025 Budget for the Japanese Defense Forces is $57 Billion, that is the third largest in the world only behind the United States and China. The money is split between the 3 branches, however a significant amount goes towards the navy. 6 Billion USD of the budget is going towards their “Standoff Defense system” which contains long range land based cruise missiles, and a satellite array in order to monitor any possible incoming missiles. Another 5 Billion goes towards the acquisition of US made Tomahawk Cruise missiles and the modification of current Japanese vessels in order to use the weapons. The Tomahawk Missiles have a range of over 1000 Miles and is able to be launched from both surface ships and submarines. Another aspect of Japanese defense spending that is unique to Japan and something that we might see China doing in the near future is the increased reliance on unmanned or autonomous capabilities. Japan and China both of a lopsided population pyramid, meaning that there are more old people then young people, and there aren’t enough young people to keep the nation running at its current scale. This means a critical manpower shortage for the militaries of both nations. Japan is attempting to abrogate this problem with increased unmanned capabilities such as the 3 “multi-purpose compact destroyers”, warships with around 4,800 tons of displacement, yet only needing a crew of 90 Sailors, in comparison the US equivalent is the Arleigh Burke class destroyer which requires a crew of 323 Sailors this will give Japan the ability to maintain the size of its military despite its demographic crisis.
The nations surrounding Japan should look at this as almost a direct threat to Chinese dominance in Asia. Japan is very obviously building up its naval capabilities and missile defense systems in order to defend against possible threats from China, and from Chinas point of view, I would take it almost as a challenge, one other aspect that the Japanese are investing in is the S/VTOL Capability in the F-35B, Japan currently has 4 “Helicopter Destroyers” or light aircraft carriers capable of carrying 28 aircraft each, the investment by the Japanese government provides a major boost to the power projection of the Japanese navy. This article relates to what we are learning in class by including the idea of national security and regional stability. Japan is building up its military in order to contain China in the South China Sea and prevent them from expanding outwards.