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<\/p>\nJapan overhauled\u00a0its\u00a0pacifist consensus of the past 80 years in just one day last month, when Prime Minister Sanae\u00a0Takaichi announced\u00a0an era-defining change\u00a0to arms exports rules. No longer just a diplomatic power,\u00a0Takaichi\u00a0is readying\u00a0Japan\u00a0for the inevitable\u00a0geopolitical\u00a0confrontations of\u00a0the 21st\u00a0century.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The prime minister\u2019s proactivity\u00a0has won her a rare thing indeed:\u00a0President Donald Trump\u2019s respect. Here is a leader, the\u00a0Trump administration thinks, that is paying up for its own security in a region where the threat of an ever-aggressive China looms large.<\/p>\n
Takaichi\u2019s\u00a0reforms\u00a0green-light the\u00a0sale of lethal weapons, including missiles, warships and jets.\u00a0Defense exports were previously limited to nonlethal equipment, a self-imposed policy that came after World War II. There are still rules of the road: Sales will be approved on a case-by-case basis by the National Security Council\u00a0and\u00a0weapons are available only to friendly states.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Defense\u00a0minister\u00a0Shinjiro Koizumi, a core proponent of arms sale diplomacy, will relish this new tool\u00a0in Japan\u2019s geopolitical arsenal.\u00a0He has already presided over a surging military budget, now touching\u00a0to 2 percent of GDP, which is\u00a0a 60 percent increase over four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The late\u00a0Shinzo Abe,\u00a0Takaichi\u2019s\u00a0predecessor and mentor,\u00a0faced fierce internal resistance when he sought to create a nascent security state in the face of an increasingly aggressive China.\u00a0Abe\u00a0wanted Japan\u2019s military capabilities to match its diplomatic prestige.\u00a0Buoyed by a supermajority in the\u00a0House of Representatives,\u00a0Takaichi\u00a0has taken up the torch with relish.<\/p>\n
Stronger Alliances in a Critical Region<\/p>\n
In his first term, President Trump embraced Japan\u2019s vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific, which upholds freedom of navigation and trade, national sovereignty and quality infrastructure. These precepts are both distinctly Japanese and a rebuke of China\u2019s contempt for all three.\u00a0Trump knows he needs Japan to keep China in check in the Indo-Pacific,\u00a0through which 60 percent of global trade flows, in and around $1 trillion of U.S. investments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The United States\u2019 national security strategy and national defense strategy, released in December and January, respectively, rightly position the Indo-Pacific as a critical geopolitical theater.<\/p>\n
Japan is also doing the essential work of maintaining the U.S.-led lattice work of alliances in Asia, binding in partners like the Philippines and Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last month, Australia\u2019s Department of\u00a0Defence\u00a0signed contracts for a $7 billion deal with Japan for cutting-edge warships.\u00a0The Australian navy will receive 11 upgraded Mogami-class frigates in total, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Koizumi and his Australian counterpart\u00a0Richard Marles stressed the operational importance of the vessels. The deal also signals to Washington that its regional allies have teeth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
China\u2019s excessive alarm over Japan\u2019s rearmament only underscores\u00a0the archipelago\u2019s\u00a0importance for regional security.\u00a0Any\u00a0fair-minded observer would not conclude that Japan is seeking to dominate the region militarily. Japan is simply developing the capabilities needed to deter\u2014and, if necessary, respond to\u2014unlawful coercion and aggression against sovereign states.<\/p>\n
For example, Japan has allocated approximately $6.5 billion for standoff missiles in its defense planning, intended for use only in counterattacks against enemy territory in the event of an attack.<\/p>\n
The much more powerful U.S. military would lead a defensive campaign in support of other allies in the region, for example, Taiwan or the Philippines. But Japan would be indispensable to that effort. As well as hosting significant U.S. forces, Japan\u2019s archipelagic geography positions it as a lid over the Asian continent, perfectly positioned to contain China\u2019s expansion into the Pacific Ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Standing Up to China\u00a0<\/p>\n
As\u00a0America\u2019s\u00a0allies work to bind it to the Indo-Pacific, Japan\u2019s reforms and the frigate deal come at a good time. President Trump is expected to fly to Beijing in May for talks with China\u2019s President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n
Critical commentators in Washington see the trip as a humble pie moment for Trump. Instead, bilateral discussions between the two superpowers, on the Iran conflict, trade and particularly critical minerals, are crucial.\u00a0But there is no part of Trump\u2019s political makeup or base that would countenance a craven accommodation with China.<\/p>\n
Nor should there be. China has proven itself a revisionist power that wants to upturn the peaceful status quo in the Indo-Pacific in concert with despotic North Korea and imperialist Russia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
China\u2019s navy has been entering the waters of U.S. allies such as the Philippines, as well as nonaligned countries like Vietnam and Indonesia. Moreover, the Chinese government has not ruled out the possibility of forcibly annexing democratic Taiwan and continues to exert pressure through various means, including large-scale military exercises.<\/p>\n
The recent U.S.-Japan joint exercise,\u00a0IF26,\u00a0highlighted the interoperability of both forces in the defense of the southwest islands, while also deepening understanding with distant allies such as South Korea, France and the United Kingdom. In addition, the U.S.-Japan-Philippines multinational exercise Balikatan 2026 is\u00a0now underway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With such goodwill present, Tokyo will be confident that President Trump\u2019s trip to Beijing is an effort to find agreement where possible, while restating inalienable American policy principles\u00a0on\u00a0Taiwan, China\u2019s broader antagonizing and the threat of nuclearized North Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Indo-Pacific is too crucial, for U.S. economic interests and national security, to fall by the wayside.\u00a0Trump\u00a0may not stop by Tokyo, but Japan\u2019s government will be closely informed of discussions. The U.S.-Japan alliance is the strongest in the West and has never been more crucial.<\/p>\n
Derek Grossman is professor of the practice of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California.<\/p>\n
All views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan overhauled\u00a0its\u00a0pacifist consensus of the past 80 years in just one day last month, when Prime Minister Sanae\u00a0Takaichi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8036,12,8,12258,33,550],"class_list":["post-17883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-arms","tag-china","tag-japan","tag-japan-military","tag-nihon","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}