Japan decides to scrap US land-based Aegis Ashore missile defence system

Defence Minister Taro Kono said the deployment process was stopped after the safety of two planned host communities could not be ensured

Japan had already spent US$1.7 billion on the project but not everything will go to waste, as it is compatible with those used on Japanese destroyers

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Japanese Defence Minister Taro Kono said his ministry has decided to suspend unpopular plans to deploy a costly land-based US missile combat systems aimed at bolstering the country’s defence against escalating threats from North Korea. Photo: AP

Published: 10:00pm, 15 Jun 2020Updated: 4:46am, 16 Jun 2020

Japan’s Defence Ministry on Monday said it had decided to stop unpopular plans to deploy two costly land-based US missile defence systems aimed at bolstering the country’s capability against threats from North Korea.

Defence Minister Taro Kono told reporters that he decided to “stop the deployment process” of the Aegis Ashore systems after it was found that the safety of one of the two planned host communities could not be ensured without a hardware redesign that would be too time consuming and costly.

“Considering the cost and time it would require, I had no choice but judge that pursuing the plan is not logical,” Kono said.

A Japanese Ground Self-defence Force exercise ground in Akita, northeastern Japan, which was a candidate site for the deployment of a land-based Aegis Ashore missile defence system. Photo: Kyodo

The Japanese government in 2017 approved adding the two missile defence systems to bolster the country’s current defences consisting of Aegis-equipped destroyers at sea and Patriot missiles on land.

Defence officials have said the two Aegis Ashore units could cover Japan entirely from one station at Yamaguchi in the south and another at Akita in the north. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government will now have to reconsider Japan’s missile defence programme.

The plan to deploy the two missile defence systems already had faced a series of setbacks, including questions about the selection of one of the sites, repeated cost estimate hikes that climbed to 450 billion yen (US$4.1 billion) for their 30-year operation and maintenance, and safety concerns that led to local opposition.