🔆How a ‘New’ Japan Promises to Transform Asian Geopolitics?
📍Why in News?
✅Japan’s PM’s (Fumio Kishida) address to the US Congress and the developments from his summit meeting with President Joe Biden, announced the arrival of a new, assertive Japan to the world.
✅What is the Change that Japan is Undergoing? After World War II, a defeated Japan adopted a policy of pacifism. Today, Japan is set to become a major military power, transforming its civilian industrial capability into a military industrial complex. From being a US protectorate, it now becomes an American partner and a significant contributor to Asian and Indo-Pacific security.
✅What is the Reason for this Radical Change? A mix of external and internal factors has contributed to its reorientation in the 21st century.
On the external front, the rise of China and North Korea;
the deepening military bonds between Beijing and Moscow; and the fears that the US could withdraw its security protection to Japan.
Internally, this situation strengthened conservatives in Tokyo, who wanted to see Japan becoming a ‘normal power’.
✅What Exactly is Japan Doing to Become a Geopolitical Power?
First, Japan has done away with the historical cap (~1% of its GDP) on defence expenditure.
Second, Japan is in the process of further strengthening its counter-strike capability in the form of cruise missiles.
Third, Japan has eased its self-imposed ban on exports of lethal weapons to friendly countries. Fourth, Japan-US are in the process of revising the command-and-control framework governing their defence forces.
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