A Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) soldier takes part in a drill to mobilise their Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile unit in response to a recent missile launch by North Korea, at U.S. Air Force Yokota Air Base in Fussa on the outskirts of Tokyo, Japan August 29, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo
Reuters: China, not North Korea, to dominate Japan military planning
TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea’s growing missile arsenal might be the most obvious and immediate military threat facing Japan, but defence planners in Tokyo are focused on a much larger and more challenging foe as they prepare for the years ahead.
China has stepped up military spending and already dominates the South China Sea, through which Japan’s trade with major markets including Europe and the Middle East flows.
Now, Japanese military experts are worried Beijing may be on the brink of opening access to the Pacific through a Japanese island chain that has marked the limit of China’s military influence for decades.
Tokyo sees unfettered passage for Chinese warships and warplanes through the Okinawan island chain as a threat to vital sea lanes. For China that access is part and parcel of becoming a global superpower.
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WNU Editor: The sentence that caught my eye when I read the above report was this one ....
.... If Japan is able to hunker down long enough, he explained, the threat from China should recede as future internal strife, economic woes or other events prompt a retreat.
So Japan's defense planners are of the opinion that with time economic/social/and political woes will force China to retreat from its military expansion. Hmmmm .... I call that a lot of wishful thinking.
