Facing “the most severe and complex security environment” since their founding 70 years ago, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) will accelerate the development and deployment of advanced capabilities such as precision long-range weapons, and a network of small satellites to detect and track missiles and other imminent threats.
The initiatives are outlined in Tokyo’s proposed 2025 defense budget, a record $58 billion investment that represents a more than 7% annual increase. The spending package includes funding for fighter aircraft, multirole frigates, combat drones, hypersonic missiles, high-speed glide weapons, submarine-launched guided missiles and an extended-range version of the domestically manufactured Type 12 ship-launched missile.
“Strengthening of defense capabilities has progressed smoothly, but we must continue to remain vigilant and steadily and swiftly implement necessary projects to further strengthen Japan’s defense and deterrent capabilities,” Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters in late August 2024, according to Janes, a defense analysis website.
Days earlier, a Chinese military surveillance aircraft violated Japan’s airspace near the Danjo Islands in the East China Sea, prompting the JSDF to scramble fighter jets. It was the first People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft to encroach into Japanese airspace, according to reports, although Tokyo has condemned frequent incursions into its territorial waters by Chinese military and coast guard vessels. In late August 2024, a PLA Navy survey ship entered Japanese waters southwest of Kuchinoerabu Island, the United States Naval Institute’s USNI News reported.
Tokyo’s “Defense of Japan 2024” white paper highlights the People’s Republic of China’s growing presence in the East China Sea, including around the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, and identifies Beijing as Japan’s “greatest strategic challenge.” The region’s security and stability is further undermined by North Korea’s illicit nuclear weapon and missile programs, and its illegal supply of arms to Russia for Moscow’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.
Autonomous weapons systems are vital to Japan’s defense posture, experts say. Uncrewed aerial vehicles, for example, can provide an advantage even against potential adversaries with significantly more personnel and conventional assets, such as the PLA.
“Unmanned assets are innovative ‘game-changers,’ enabling asymmetric superiority in the air, on the water and in the sea, while limiting human losses,” Japan’s Defense Ministry stated, according to The Japan Times newspaper. “They can also overcome various obstacles, continuously operating for longer periods and establishing a seamless intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance posture.”
Tokyo’s record budget request is part of its plan to double defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027.
“It is an important message of longer-term commitment to the previously announced defense buildup plan, showing that this was not a one-off gesture but a practical and credible program to strengthen defenses,” James Schoff, a defense expert at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, told The Japan Times. “It should help strengthen deterrence so that opponents are not tempted to use force to solve a dispute with Japan or its close friends.”
As Japan boosts defense spending, it also is fortifying its regional partnerships. In September 2024, the defense and foreign ministers of Australia and Japan agreed to enhance security cooperation and interoperability, including through joint exercises and liaison officer exchanges.
They also reaffirmed cooperation on information warfare, air and missile defense, and counterstrike capabilities “that leverage Japan’s stand-off defense capability and Australia’s long-range strike capability,” Japan’s Defense Ministry stated.
The ministers also noted their nations’ “strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion in the East and South China seas,” while expressing concern over “the recent activities by Chinese military assets in Japanese territory … [and] China’s intensification of dangerous and coercive activities” in the South China Sea.
