Description
On 16 December 2022, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio’s administration published three strategic documents meant to “dramatically transform Japan’s national security policy after the end of WWII”: the National Security Strategy (NSS), the National Defense Strategy (NDS) and the Defense Buildup Program, with key changes including increasing the defence budget to the third largest globally and adoption of a ‘counter-strike’ doctrine. In light of what the NSS calls a “historical inflection point and in the face of the most severe and complex security environment since the end of WWII”, this panel brings together papers to consider several key implications of the three strategic documents, in terms of partnerships with other like-minded states, joint and ever-growing multilateral military exercises, shaping the regional security environment, deterrence, defence industrial and tech reforms including outer space. On the basis of their analysis, it reviews continuity and change in Japan's defense posture.
