Japan will set up a new amphibious military unit and deploy unarmed surveillance drones in its south-west, where it faces a row with China over disputed islands, according to drafts of the nation’s latest defence plans seen on Wednesday.
The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, ordered the defence policy review after returning to office last December, pledging to strengthen the military and boost Japan’s global security role.
The defence guideline and military build-up plan, to be approved by the government next week, follow China’s declaration in November of a new air defense identification zone in an area that includes the disputed isles, triggering protests from Tokyo, as well as Washington and Seoul.
The drafts of the two plans were made available at a meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic party lawmakers and shown to reporters. Final versions of the guideline, which lays out Japan’s policy for the next 10 years, and the build-up plan, called the mid-term defence programme and covering a five-year period, will be unveiled next Tuesday.
Citing Japan’s concerns about what it calls Beijing’s attempts to change the status quo with force, the guideline says Japan will “respond calmly and resolutely to the rapid expansion and step-up of China’s maritime and air activities”.
Japan plans to set up an amphibious unit designed to take back the remote islands, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in case of invasion and boost the number of fighter jet squadrons at its Naha base on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa to two from one to maintain air superiority.
One squadron usually consists of 20 fighter jets.
It also plans to procure unmanned surveillance drones and establish a unit of E-2C early warning aircraft at the Naha base, the draft said.
E-2Cs, routinely used to keep watch in the area surrounding the disputed islands are based in northern Japan’s Misawa base.
Japan will also bolster its overall capability to respond to missile attacks in the face of improvement in North Korea’s ballistic missile technology, the draft guideline said.
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