‘Useless and provocative’: Japan will deploy its first post-war aircraft carriers but it’s a deeply controversial move
- Critics say the ships will be too small to have significant strategic value, but will nevertheless antagonise China
- The decision to upgrade two Izumo-class helicopter carriers so they can launch fighter jets also risks breaching Japan’s pacifist constitution
Japan is getting its first aircraft carriers since the second world war and buying dozens of fighter jets under a new defence plan that was approved on Tuesday. But the move is a deeply controversial one.
Intended to counter China’s growing military power, the new five-year defence plan calls for the upgrade of two existing helicopter carriers so that they can launch fighters, and is the latest in a series of steps under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to boost Japan’s military.
Abe’s government argues the efforts are necessary given growing defence challenges in the region, including tensions with North Korea, and particularly “strong concerns” about the expansion of China’s military footprint.
But critics argue the move shifts Tokyo further away from its commitment to strictly defensive capabilities under Japan’s post-World War II pacifist constitution, which restricts the country from possessing what are deemed to be highly offensive armaments.
Japan’s new defence guidelines highlight military ambitions and mounting concerns about China and Russia
“We will secure both the quantity and quality of defence capability that is necessary … to meet the rapidly changing security environment,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular press briefing on Tuesday.
“We believe this is within … what is allowed under the constitution.”