Japan has scrapped plans to buy a multimillion-dollar anti-missile defense system from the United States that was intended to increase its ability to counter the “serious and imminent” threat from North Korea.
Japan’s Defense Minister Taro Kono acknowledged that the Aegis Ashore ground system would prove too costly and time consuming because it would require a hardware upgrade to ensure that booster rockets do not fall in populated areas close to host sites.
Japan’s National Security Council approved the cancellation on Friday, raising the possibility that Japan may develop a first-strike capability, a move critics say violates its constitution, which has restricted its military to a strictly defensive role since the end of the second world war. .
Kono said Japan would have to expand its entire defense posture against ongoing regional threats to its security. “We were unable to move forward with this project, but there are still threats from North Korea,” he said in Tokyo this week, adding that the government had been unable to find alternative sites for the missile systems.
He said Japan would consider acquiring weapons capable of attacking enemy missile launchers.
But any first strike capability would represent a fundamental change in Japan’s military posture that could cause concern in other countries in the region.
“I don’t think we are excluding any option before the discussions,” Kono said when asked if the ability to preemptively attack enemy bases would be on the agenda of the National Security Council.
Donald Trump has not commented on the cancellation, but has encouraged Japan to buy more military hardware from the US and take more responsibility for its own defense.
The state department said in a statement that the United States “will continue to work closely with Japan to find a solution to their concerns that improves our shared security in the face of mounting regional threats.”
The government approved in 2017 plans to buy two Aegis Ashore systems to add to its SM-3 guided missiles launched by destroyers equipped with Aegis and Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles.
The two units, costing an estimated $ 4.2 billion over three decades, would have covered all of Japan from one station in Yamaguchi in the south and another in Akita in the north.
Tokyo and Washington have already signed a contract worth 180 billion yen ($ 1.7 billion) related to the system, according to the Defense Ministry. Japan has so far paid 12.5 billion yen.
Kono also expressed concern about China’s increasingly assertive activity in the region, noting that Chinese Coast Guard ships had repeatedly entered and left Japanese waters near the disputed Senkaku islands in the East China Sea.
“China is trying to change the status quo unilaterally in the East China Sea, the South China Sea and also with the Indian border and Hong Kong,” he said. “It’s easy to make the connection between those problems.”
