Under New Defense Plan, Japan May Become ‘Normal’ World Power

Voice of America News reports: “Japan this month took a major step toward loosening its postwar military restraints, unveiling new policies that will allow the Asian giant to play a much bigger role in regional and global security affairs.

Under a new National Security Strategy (NSS) and two other documents released in mid-December, Japan will roughly double defense spending over the next five years and for the first time deploy missiles that can hit military targets in other countries.

The policies smash through decades-old taboos in Japan, which has embraced a relatively restrained defense posture under its technically pacifist constitution drafted by the United States following Tokyo’s defeat in World War II.

‘By realizing the vision articulated in the three documents, Japan might finally become a ‘normal nation’ in terms of its ability to defend itself,’ said Tobias Harris, a Japan politics specialist and deputy director at the German Marshall Fund.

‘But these documents are the result of a long-term process of thinking about Japan’s changing threat environment,’ Harris said in a blog post…”

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