Japan signed a deal with the United States on Thursday to purchase up to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of its ongoing military buildup in response to increased regional threats.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has pledged to double its annual defense spending to around 10 trillion yen ($68 billion) by 2027, which would make Japan the world’s third-biggest military spender after the United States and China.
Defense Minister Minoru Kihara announced in December a decision to accelerate deployment of some Tomahawks and Japanese-made Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles beginning in fiscal year 2025, a year before the original plan. The government says Japan is facing its “severest” security environment since World War II because of threats from China and North Korea, causing it to increase military cooperation with the U.S., Australia, Britain and other friendly nations.
I swear, every nation is building up it’s was arsenal. We’re heading for another major world war. I’m pretty sure.
I hope I’m wrong.
Most nations are reacting to increased activity of the ordnance departments of authoritarian regimes.
It’s the opposite actually. Everyone got the Ukraine memo. If you don’t have nukes or modern weaponry, another country can and will invade.
The success of the modern weapons Ukraine have been receiving is also proof that in case of invasion you want these weapons immediately deployable, not delayed until your aggressor has laid minefields and trenches across your territory, and not with strings attached wherein you can’t actually hit your aggressors territory.
Especially when some countries don’t really care for international laws and treaties and do pretty much whatever they want.
China boned itself so hard with the one child policy that they are either going to have to do a great leap forward, import a bunch of people under an immigration policy, or go to war. I suspect it will be the last one. They have way too many old people, too few young women, and a ton of guys (but still not as much as the older folks). It’s gonna cause a massive problem as they are well below replacement rate, there are few women, and a ton of their working class is gonna retire with nobody to support them in the next 20- 30 years or so.
Generally, immigration keeps a country stable, but they don’t really have much immigration.
So much for Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution:
Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.
Did they ever actually have that referendum to change it, or did they just decide to say yolo fuck it? (The last update on Wikipedia is that the PM “renewed calls” for it in May last year.)
They’re self defense cruise missiles so it’s OK
