What does Japan’s military expansion mean for the region?
Tokyo announces its biggest military build-up since World War II.
Japan says the strategic challenge posed by China is the biggest it has ever faced.
Besides Beijing, Japan has two other nuclear-armed neighbours: North Korea and Russia.
It has expressed concerns about intensifying Russian military activity in its far east, even as Moscow presses on with its war against Ukraine.
And a North Korean missile flew over Japan in October.
Japan wants to significantly increase its military spending, targeting $315bn in the next five years, or two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP).
But Tokyo’s plans are a reminder of an imperial past, when it occupied the Korean peninsula and parts of China and seized all of East Asia during the second world war.
So, what does the new military drive mean for Japan’s Pacifist Constitution?
Presenter: Laura Kyle
Guests:
Kotaro Tamura – Adjunct Professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. He is a former senator with Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party.
Nancy Snow – Communications Director, International Security Industrial Council. She’s also a Foreign Policy Adviser to the Japanese Government.
David Arase – Resident Professor of International Politics at The Hopkins-Nanjing Center of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.