JAPAN'S CALL TO ARMS

As the 'peace-loving nation' doubles its defense spending, Prime Minister FUMIO KISHIDA explains why it needs to take an assertive stance to counter China and North Korea

- TOM O'CONNOR

MORE THAN A DOZEN TIMES, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida uses the word "peace" as he discusses his country's momentous decision to undertake its largest buildup of military capabilities since World War II.

"Since I became prime minister, we have substantially revised Japan's National Security Strategy," Kishida told Newsweek during an interview at his office in Tokyo on the heels of his first visit to Washington, D.C., as Japan's leader for talks with President Joe Biden. "Now, in that strategy, of course, we will not change the steps we have been taking to date as a peace-loving nation."

Japan faces a changing international order that is anything but peaceful, in either its own neighborhood or beyond. Under Kishida's leadership since 2021, it has more assertively set out a policy of reinforcing its defense forces and of strengthening its alliances with the United States and other Western powers as it builds new partnerships with Asian countries that had sometimes been historically wary of its motives.

China is rapidly developing state-of-the-art military technology and seeking to assert its increasingly dominant regional position amid intensified global competition with the U.S. Its sporadic maritime confrontations with Japan over disputed East China Sea Islands are a sign of the bigger contest. North Korea, undeterred by international sanctions, seemingly achieves nuclear-capable missile milestones by the day while broadcasting fiery rhetoric toward its foes.

Meanwhile, Japan faces the repercussions of Russia's war on Ukraine as it raises the prospect of a wider war with NATO in Europe and as Moscow also looks to the East, where it has a long-standing territorial dispute with Tokyo.

The sheer imbalance of military power surrounding Japan is displayed in one Japanese government document shared with Newsweek. Japan's troops and aircraft are vastly outnumbered on all three fronts.