Post by Admin on May 19, 2023 4:18:49 GMT
In our news wrap Thursday, President Biden met with Japan's prime minister and discussed support for Ukraine's military and defense cooperation against China's growing military power, 30 Russian cruise missiles rained down on Ukraine overnight and the toll of a flood disaster in northern Italy is still climbing after torrential rain caused dozens of rivers to burst their banks.
Tokyo — President Biden was in Japan Thursday to join fellow G7 leaders in Hiroshima for a Friday summit that will see the world's biggest economic powers grapple with global issues, including China's huge military buildup in the Pacific.
Japan, America's biggest ally in the region, has already committed to doubling its national defense budget. That drew praise from the U.S. and marked a major departure from more than 75 years of foreign policy.
Japan's constitution was written in 1945 by American occupation authorities after WWII specifically to ensure the country never went to war again. Article 9 of that constitution bans Japan from settling international disputes by force. That posture is reflected in the formal name of Japan's military, which is still called the Self-Defense Forces. Those forces are permitted to defend the country, but not to engage in offensive action.
Recently, however, China's increasingly aggressive stance and military buildup, along with concern over the intentions of the Kim Jong Un regime in North Korea, have changed the context, and the mood.
Last August, during huge war games around Taiwan, China test-fired five missiles that landed in Japanese waters. Then in December, China sailed its sole aircraft carrier between two of Japan's southern islands.
As a result, there's now broad support in Japan for a more muscular military.
Naurushiga Michishita, a professor of defense policy in Tokyo, told CBS News the decision to dramatically increase Japan's defense spending "could have been much more controversial had it not been for China's massive military buildup, its coercive and sometimes even aggressive actions that it's taking in the South China Sea."
Tokyo — President Biden was in Japan Thursday to join fellow G7 leaders in Hiroshima for a Friday summit that will see the world's biggest economic powers grapple with global issues, including China's huge military buildup in the Pacific.
Japan, America's biggest ally in the region, has already committed to doubling its national defense budget. That drew praise from the U.S. and marked a major departure from more than 75 years of foreign policy.
Japan's constitution was written in 1945 by American occupation authorities after WWII specifically to ensure the country never went to war again. Article 9 of that constitution bans Japan from settling international disputes by force. That posture is reflected in the formal name of Japan's military, which is still called the Self-Defense Forces. Those forces are permitted to defend the country, but not to engage in offensive action.
Recently, however, China's increasingly aggressive stance and military buildup, along with concern over the intentions of the Kim Jong Un regime in North Korea, have changed the context, and the mood.
Last August, during huge war games around Taiwan, China test-fired five missiles that landed in Japanese waters. Then in December, China sailed its sole aircraft carrier between two of Japan's southern islands.
As a result, there's now broad support in Japan for a more muscular military.
Naurushiga Michishita, a professor of defense policy in Tokyo, told CBS News the decision to dramatically increase Japan's defense spending "could have been much more controversial had it not been for China's massive military buildup, its coercive and sometimes even aggressive actions that it's taking in the South China Sea."