JAPAN is considering a larger budget to drastically strengthen its defence capabilities to deal with China's military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region and North Korea's renewed missile and nuclear threat.
Japan's Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said in an interview with Kyodo News that the ministry will also go ahead with discussions on a controversial plan to acquire so-called enemy base strike capabilities.
He said Japan should have capabilities to strike an enemy base as a deterrence so that potential enemies will know that they will have to pay a price if they decided to attack the country.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had previously also said that the government will look at all options necessary for national defence.
Japan has long held an exclusively defense-oriented policy under its war-renouncing Constitution.
"The defense budget is a major indicator that shows the nation's will. We want to ensure a budget that is enough to strengthen our defense capabilities drastically for the fiscal year through March 2024," Kishi said.
Japan's defence budget for the current year is already at a record-high 5.4 trillion yen (US$44 billion).
It increased for the 10th year in a row, and is about one per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
He said Japan needed to bolster its defense capabilities fast due to the increasingly severe regional security environment.
It was in apparent reference to Tokyo's sense of urgency to counter Beijing's claims of sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands, which is a group of uninhabited islets under the control of Japan in the East China Sea.
Diplomatic and defense experts have said Russia's conflict with Ukraine could embolden China to attack Taiwan, which it views as a renegade province that will be reunified with the mainland by force if necessary.
Kishi added that the international community also needed to work together to deter China and to keep military emergencies in the Taiwan Strait from occurring.
The North Korean threat has also increased with Pyongyang resuming the test-firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles last month for the first time since November 2017.
It is now reportedly preparing for a possible underground nuclear test.
Kishi said it would be costly only to pursue bolstering capabilities to intercept missiles due to rapidly advancing technologies of North Korea in that area.