US-Japan summit focuses on countering China and Russia

US President Joe Biden hosted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Friday for a visit underscoring the deepening of the US-Japan strategic alliance and Tokyo’s growing sense of vulnerability amid threats to regional security, mainly from China, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The United States is totally, completely committed to the alliance,” Biden said. “And, what is more important, with the defense of Japan.”

Ahead of the Biden-Kishida summit, Washington’s chief diplomat Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, along with their Japanese counterparts Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and Defense Minister Hamada Yasukazu, launched a series of changes to defense posture, military training arrangements, and command relationships, including plans to reorganize US Marine Corps units based on Okinawa.

The changes, announced in Washington on Wednesday, indicate that the two allies are taking the possibility of war in the Indo-Pacific more seriously in the event of a Chinese incursion into Taiwan or North Korean nuclear strikes.

But Japan’s new National Security Strategy, released in December, has also been exposed, warning of the possibility that “a serious situation may arise in the Indo-Pacific region, especially in East Asia, in the future.” and calls for a long-range “counterattack” with “capability that would enable it to hit targets in mainland China.

“Japan and the United States are currently facing the most challenging and complex security environment in recent history,” Kishida said through an interpreter, touting his country’s national security strategy, which he said “will ensure peace and security.” prosperity in the region.

The Kishida government also plans to double Japan’s defense budget to nearly 2% of its gross domestic product by 2027, which would put the nation in the world’s top five for military spending.

The moves came with the blessing of the United States. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told the voice of america at a briefing on Wednesday that Japan’s “unprecedented” national security strategy and commitment to boost its defense “will strengthen deterrence in the region to promote peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.” .

While Tokyo has been gradually bolstering its defense capabilities over the past decade in response to increased Chinese military activities in the South China Sea, the waters around Taiwan, as well as the East China Sea, particularly around Senkaku, the group of islands claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan: The announcements made last month surprised many observers.

“Nobody thought it was going to happen this fast,” said Jeffrey Hornung, a senior political scientist specializing in Japan and East Asia security at Rand Corp. “Nobody thought it was going to happen under this prime minister who is not known as a defense hawk. At whatever price. And yet it is essentially changing Japan’s postwar defense policy in ways that no one had imagined,” Hornung told the VOA.

Kishida is currently facing low approval ratings at home due to various scandals involving members of his cabinet.

The war in Ukraine is a wake-up call

A Chinese attack on Taiwan remains hypothetical, but Russia’s war against Ukraine has awakened the Japanese public to the possibility of one country invading another. That, combined with China sending its warships and fighter planes and launching ballistic missiles around Taiwan in response to US attacks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island last year scared people, said Zack Cooper, a senior fellow who focuses on US strategy in Asia at the American Enterprise Institute.

“Those two actions by Xi Jinping, by Vladimir Putin, have convinced many in Tokyo that, look, especially in these autocratic countries that are largely run by one leader, you just can’t have that much confidence in the actions that are going to take,” Cooper told the VOA. “So Japan has to step up much more actively now than it had been prepared to before.”

Should a Chinese attack spread to Taiwan, Tokyo is looking to bolster the ability to protect itself and support the approximately 50,000 US troops currently operating in Japan. This will help the US in its possible move to defend Taipei in a conflict in China’s backyard.

“For us to have any chance of trying to push back the aggression, we need a very strong Japan,” Hornung said.

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