Enhancing Coastal Attack and Defense Capabilities
The Japanese government has embarked on arranging a defense budget of unprecedented size for the next year. Alongside increasing the defense budget, policies to enhance defense capabilities, such as easing restrictions on defense equipment exports, are being actively pursued.
According to Kyodo News on the 14th, the Japanese government is adjusting the defense budget for the fiscal year 2026 (April 2026 to March 2027) to approximately 9 trillion yen (about 85 trillion won), the largest in history.
Japan aims to revise its three main security documents, the foundation of its security policy, by 2027, increasing the defense-related budget to 2% of its GDP and securing about 43 trillion yen (407 trillion won) for defense over five years. The Japanese government is currently working on revising the security documents, and the pace of the defense budget increase is expected to accelerate.
With the substantial budget, the Japanese government plans to expand long-range missiles and drones. Long-range missiles serve as a means of “counterattack capability” to strike enemy bases, while drones are utilized for establishing the coastal defense system “Shield.”
Kyodo News reported that “they will acquire hypersonic missiles that fly at more than five times the speed of sound, making interception difficult” and that the air-defense missile “Type 03 Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile” will be modified to intercept ballistic missiles.
Additionally, to enhance capabilities in space operations, the Japanese government plans to establish a new “Space Operations Unit” (tentative name) and expand the Air Self-Defense Force to an “Aerospace Defense Force.” The Ground Self-Defense Force unit based in Naha, Okinawa, will be upgraded from a brigade to a division.
As the Japanese government aggressively increases the defense budget, domestic defense industries are experiencing a boom. Consequently, they are aggressively recruiting personnel and investing in facilities.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which manufactures fighter jets and warships, expects its defense business sales, which were about 500 billion yen (4.7 trillion won) in fiscal year 2023, to increase to around 1 trillion yen (about 9.5 trillion won) in fiscal year 2026. Accordingly, it plans to increase its number of employees by 40% compared to the fiscal year 2023 by March 2027.
NEC, Hitachi, and IHI are also beginning to hire employees. Mitsubishi Electric plans to sequentially establish eight new factories.
Meanwhile, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that if the flight route of the Chinese and Russian bombers, which flew between the islands of Okinawa Prefecture and to the south of Shikoku on the 9th, was extended, it would have reached Tokyo. According to information released by the Japanese Ministry of Defense Joint Staff Office, the Chinese and Russian bombers flew southeast, passing between Okinawa Island and Miyakojima, then turned left by about 90 degrees from the southern sea area of Okinawa Island, moving northeast.
If the Chinese and Russian military aircraft had continued to fly in a straight line south of Shikoku without turning back, they would have reached Tokyo, as well as Yokosuka, where the Maritime Self-Defense Force and U.S. Navy bases are located. Although there was an instance of a Chinese bomber flying towards Tokyo in 2017, it is the first time that Chinese and Russian military aircraft appear to have moved together along this route, according to Yomiuri.
Yomiuri analyzed that “part of the flight path overlaps with the navigation route of the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning on the 6th when Chinese fighter jets ‘locked on’ to Self-Defense Force fighters with radar.” In this context, a Ministry of Defense official claimed, “there was an intention to demonstrate that Tokyo could be bombed.”