Japan must improve its operational readiness, which is currently around 50per cent, according to Masanori Nishi, Former Administrative Vice Minister of Defence.
“It is necessary to bring it back to at least 60 per cent – especially through the sustainability
of our stockpile,” Nishi said in a recent discussion with Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Gary Waterfall, Senior Military Advisor, DSEI at a pre-show event “It must also be sufficient to carry out modern warfare. These two parts are key to our defensive requirements and certainly where our budgetary focus must be. Of course, there are several newly emerging issues like the cyber security and space.” DSEI Japan 2023 gives Japan an ideal platform to present what the government and industry have been working on, and to show what the country has learned from global conflicts such as Russia in Ukraine and Chinese aggression against Taiwan, Nishi said.
Nishi also explained why the Japanese MoD decided to rewrite its strategic papers and dramatically increase its military spending. “For many years, since the end of the Second World War, we have neighbored three strongly armed countries, Russia – formally the Soviet Union – China and North Korea… In these 80 years, it has been difficult to develop relations with these countries. Japan is increasingly aware of how difficult and dangerous our region of the world has become.”
Nishi elaborated on the threat from China. “When you compare China’s 1996 defence budget to today, you will find that it is 30 times more. Their focus is primarily on surface ships capability, particularly aircraft carriers – in fact, they are aiming to finish their third aircraft carrier in the very near future. We must pay attention that what China is going to do against Taiwan. if Taiwan is in danger, that is going to disturb all lines of communications from Japan to the south. China is now such a great power that we must ask “how we can deter it?”.
That’s a very difficult question to answer. Nishi believes that while Japan’s indigenous defence industry will benefit from the increased military spending, there are challenges
that need to be overcome. Japanese weapon systems are not designed for export but are for use by the country’s forces. This reduces the chance for arms transfers, he said.
“Changes to these (weapon) systems would make them very expensive,” he said. “This issue will be coming up in the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) collaboration with the UK and Italy. It will
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