November 23, 2022

A government’s expert panel discussing enhancement of Japan’s defense capabilities on November 22 submitted to Prime Minister Kishida Fumio its report. The government, based on the report, will revise three key national security policy documents (the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Program Guidelines, and the Mid-Term Defense Program) by the end of the year.

The report states that a counterforce (enemy-strike) capability is indispensable for Japan to enhance its deterrence capability and calls for stockpiling missiles sufficient to satisfy this capability. The report stresses the need to impose tax increases on the general public to secure the financial resources needed to double Japan’s military budget within five years.

Asked for a comment about the expert panel’s report, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira at a press conference in the Diet building said, “The report indicates a drastic change in Japan’s security policy by calling for an enemy-strike capability. The report proposes that the government should use everything at its disposal, including the economy, finance, science technology, and public infrastructure for military purposes.” He criticized the report for turning postwar Japan, established on the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, into a nation which puts military policy ahead of everything else.

Koike noted that the report demands that the general public pay more taxes and endure cuts in government spending on social security programs and other livelihood-related services in order to finance the huge increase in defense spending. He pointed out that in Japan, which is experiencing widening economic inequality and increasing poverty, people are struggling hard to deal with the ongoing price surge. He said that under this situation, if big tax hikes are carried out as proposed by the expert panel, it is obvious that people’s living conditions will be further aggravated, leading to a decline in personal consumption and a further deterioration in Japan’s economy.

Koike said that the JCP demands an immediate halt to discussions on Japan’s possession of a counterforce capability which violates the Constitution and on the doubling of military spending which will damage people’s livelihoods, and added that the JCP will work hard to increase the public movement to prevent the government from carrying out a military buildup policy based on the expert panel’s report.