Takaichi flags China threat in security push

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warned of rising Chinese “coercion” on Friday and pledged sweeping changes to the country’s defence and economic security policies in her first major post-election address to parliament.

Speaking in Tokyo, Takaichi said Japan faces its most severe and complex security environment since World War II, citing China’s expanding military activity, deepening ties with Russia, and North Korea’s advancing nuclear missile program, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.

Her government plans to revise Japan’s three core security documents this year and accelerate reforms to military export rules in order to strengthen the country’s defence industry and expand overseas sales.

“China has intensified its attempts to unilaterally change the status quo through force or coercion,” Takaichi told lawmakers, referring to tensions in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

The prime minister has already been pushing forward a military buildup launched in 2023 that will raise defence spending to 2% of GDP by the end of the fiscal year — a historic shift for pacifist Japan that would make it one of the world’s top military spenders.

Takaichi also announced plans to create a national intelligence council, which she would chair, to better coordinate information gathered by agencies including police and the defence ministry. Japan currently lacks centralized intelligence bodies comparable to the U.S. CIA or Britain’s MI5.

Beyond defence, the government intends to introduce a Japanese version of the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment to screen overseas investment in sensitive sectors and review rules on foreign land purchases.

She also pledged to strengthen supply chains and reduce dependence on what she called “specific countries,” while working with allies to secure critical minerals, including rare earth resources near the remote Pacific island of Minamitori.

On energy policy, Takaichi promised to accelerate the restart of nuclear reactors that have remained offline since the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

“A nation that does not take on challenges has no future,” she said, closing her speech.

News.Az 

By Aysel Mammadzada