Japan is “stealth military power”

Though its constitution officially prohibits war and its army and navy are innocuously called “self-defense forces (SDF),” Japan is a stealth military power, with an annual budget of around $42 billion – the sixth largest in the world. Despite all that money, Japan’s armed forces have traditionally kept a very low profile, at home and abroad. But that’s begun changing. Over the past few years, Japanese forces have taken part in operations in Iraq and the Indian Ocean. Conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last month elevated Japan’s Defense Agency to a full-fledged Cabinet-level ministry, and is aiming to change the country’s pacifist constitution, which could open the door for more frequent foreign deployments for the SDF. “For the past 50 years, Japan intentionally ignored the matter of defense,” says Toshiyuki Shikata, a defense analyst at Teikyo University. But now, he adds, Japan is waking up to its own military power. . . .

The specter of a rearming and aggressive Japan gives the rest of Asia flashbacks to WWII, but the truth is that Iwakuni, like all Japanese military facilities, is far more defensive than offensive.