Japan has said that it will develop a new land-to-sea missile in an attempt to increase its defence as tensions with China continue to rise. “Japan shouldn’t use double standards between the militarization of the Miyako Islands and the militarization of the Nansha Islands”.
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“Japan’s aggressive plan has barely met any opposition”.
Japanese media reported that Tokyo has made a decision to deploy the new land-to-sea missiles to increase its maritime defense capabilities in the wake of China’s growing “aggression” in the region.
Costs for development will be part of the defence ministry’s budgetary request for the fiscal year ending March 2018, according to the Yomiuri.
Tokyo plans to deploy the weapon, which reportedly will have a range of 300km on islands such as Miyako in Okinawa prefecture, the top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said, without citing sources.
Japan and the Philippines have begun talks for the transfer of two large coast guard ships to Manila, to help patrol the disputed South China Sea, a Japanese foreign ministry official said on Friday, as part of a deal on defense equipment.
Tokyo has also voiced concerns over Chinese naval vessels that have sailed in and around Japanese territorial waters in the East China Sea, including in a contiguous zone around the Diaoyus.
“Though Japan claims it is for defence purposes, the missiles increase Japan’s capability to shift from a defensive to an offensive posture”, said Mr Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences.
“If China launches a strategic weapon or if a ship departs from China’s coastal areas in Zhejiang Province, they would be within the missiles’ range”, he told the Global Times.
Foreign ministers protested against China’s actions in the region.
“The range is higher than that of Russia’s S-300 surface-to-air missile system, and better than China’s current surface-to-air missile system”, Prof Zhou told Global Times. Japan has stationed four unarmed missiles on an island that sits on the gateway to the Pacific.
Da said the missiles are similar to South Korea’s recent deployment of the THAAD system, as both would spark a regional arms race.
Thaad’s powerful radar can extend into Chinese and Russian territories, reported the Xinhua news agency.
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Beijing opposes the deployment which it sees as a U.S. move against its own national security interests.
