Recent Defense Efforts
The security environment surrounding Japan has been deteriorating each year, given China’s military expansion, North Korea’s nuclear development, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Among these crises, the fear of a Taiwan contingency has been circulating throughout Japan, prompting the government to beef up its defenses.
Surely, China has its eyes on Taiwan and the recent development has increased the likelihood of such a invasion to an unprecedented level.
But, the possibility has always existed ever since the Nationalist forces were kicked out of Mainland China in 1949.
Despite constant warnings by security experts, public reaction had long been impervious, only to be alarmed by the recent media coverage. The same goes to the government, which seems to be finally preparing for a potential conflict in the region.
The speed of such preparation over that past two years has been quite astonishing.
To note a few cases, the following measures have been either implemented or decided under the Kishida administration alone:
- Doubling the defense budget
- Major organizational restructuring of the Self-Defense Forces
- Introducing long-range attack missiles
- Increasing blood transfusion capabilities
- Building state-owned ammunition plants
- Requesting trade companies for emergency food import plans
- Expanding airport and port facilities in the southwestern region
- Enabling the maintenance of US vessels by Japanese companies
- Creating evacuation plans and bomb shelters in Okinawa
- Easing the ban on arms export and weapons transfer
- Deploying fighters to Australia on a rotational basis
Remember, this is the same country that exhausted considerable time and political resources just to allow the SDF to defend its US allies during certain combat situations.
It seems as though there is a sudden rush to make up for the lost time, with measures of ramping up ammunition production, securing blood for transfusions, and laying out plans for stable import of food obviously implying a wartime scenario.
The situation is deemed so pessimistic that the delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles has been expedited a year or so, even at the expense of half becoming older models.
Time To Finish Homework
While these hurried efforts by the government might suggest that they have acquired some critical intel about possible invasion, it is more accurate to portray it as Japan finally finishing the long-carried over “homework.”
The risk of China invading Taiwan is undoubtedly brewing, but there are no signs of an imminent invasion yet.
Sending a sizable force to capture Taiwan is no easy task, particularly with the 130km/80 mile strait lying between. Even with the impressive fleet China has managed to build over the last two decades, conquering a well-defended island is extremely challenging and would be a logistical nightmare.
Moreover, such invasion would require a lot of preparation, attracting attention from US satellites. Just like Russia’s military buildup in 2022, any move by China would be grasped by US intelligence beforehand, giving both Washington and Tokyo some time to get ready.
Hence, although Japan is accelerating its preparation for possible war at an unseen scale, the true nature of such effort is bolstering overall defense capabilities, including the ones that were relatively neglected such as rear echelon units.
As the famous Japanese proverb suggests, one can never be too prepared especially when its comes to matters of national security.
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