The Japanese government plans to indicate it is on alert over China’s increasing military activities around Japan, particularly in the Pacific, and highlight the need for close coordination with the United States and likeminded nations in facing Beijing, a draft of the upcoming annual defense report showed Friday.
The draft cited as an example the unprecedented simultaneous deployment of two Chinese aircraft carriers in the Pacific in June last year, as well as what it described as an “unusually close approach” by Chinese fighter jet toward a Japanese Self-Defense Forces plane.
Challenges posed by China should be “dealt with through comprehensive national power and cooperation with allies and like-minded countries,” it said. The Defense Ministry’s 2026 white paper will be presented to the Cabinet possibly in July.
The draft document also referred to an incident last December in which Chinese military aircraft directed radar at SDF fighter jets over international waters southeast of Okinawa’s main island, while criticizing China for continuing to increase defense spending “at a high level without sufficient transparency.”
On the situation regarding Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, the draft’s assessment was that China has repeatedly conducted military exercises in the airspace and waters around the self-ruled island in an apparent effort to normalize such operations and improve its combat capabilities.
The paper also expressed “serious concern” over expanding military cooperation between China and Russia, including joint flights by Chinese and Russian bombers from the East China Sea to the Pacific Ocean off Japan’s western region.
On North Korea, the report said it is advancing its missile development program at an extremely rapid pace, calling the country “a more serious and imminent threat than ever before.”
It also warned that North Korea’s military capabilities could be enhanced through cooperation with Russia.
Drawing lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the draft newly included a chapter to detail evolving forms of warfare.
It touched on the use of large-scale combined attacks involving inexpensive mass-produced drones together with conventional artillery and missiles and stressed the need to maintain sufficient stockpiles and remain combat capable during prolonged conflicts.
© KYODO
