China may use Japan’s aircraft carrier plan to push through more military spending, observers say
- Tokyo says it wants to upgrade its Izumo-class destroyers so they can carry and launch fighter jets
- Move would be a first since nation adopted its pacifist constitution and could make regional neighbours anxious, experts say
Tokyo’s plan to develop an aircraft carrier capable of launching fighter jets is driven by Beijing’s military rise, but the move could embolden hawkish generals in China to press ahead with their own expansion programmes, observers said.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner Komeito Party this week approved a new defence guideline that will effectively allow the Japanese military to convert naval vessels currently capable of carrying only helicopters into fully operational aircraft carriers able to launch fighter jets like the F-35.
The plan is controversial as under its pacifist constitution, Japan has never before owned such advanced naval hardware.
Song Zhongping, a military commentator based in Hong Kong, said Tokyo’s plan would make an already fragile Sino-Japanese relationship even more uneasy.