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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit with President Biden is aimed at selling Tokyo as the linchpin of eastern security and a bulwark against Chinese and North Korean aggression.
It’s part of a historic shift for the island nation, which has committed to growing its military and shirking off its pacifist policy that was self-imposed in the aftermath of World War II.
Japan has also joined sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war, though it has not provided lethal aid to Kyiv.
“Japan has really broken out of the kind of postwar mold, if you’d like, of hesitancy about its military,” said Sheila Smith, senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
“So we have a new Japan on the world stage, in some ways, that is less hesitant about the need for military power as one of the arrows in the quiver of its statecraft.”
Meeting in the Oval office on Friday, Biden described Kishida’s Washington visit as a “remarkable moment” for the U.S. and Japan alliance.
“I don’t think there’s ever been a time when we were closer,” the president said.
“Let me be crystal clear: The United States is fully, thoroughly, completely committed to the alliance and, more importantly, to the defense of Japan.”
Kishida on Friday said that the U.S. and Japan are “facing the most challenging and complex security environment in recent history.”
Japan’s commitment to double its defense spending over the next five years was widely welcomed in Washington, and Tokyo is walking away with concrete gains from the Biden administration.
This includes upgrading U.S. troops stationed in Japan with increased capabilities such as advanced intelligence and surveillance, Biden officials said. The U.S. and Japan are also expanding their mutual defense commitments to cover space and cybersecurity.
The administration has also endorsed Japan’s decision to develop counterstrike capabilities. This would allow Tokyo to defend itself from incoming missile attacks and launch strikes against aggressors – likely North Korea or China.
Japan has identified China’s military buildup as a threat to Tokyo, and sees Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as having the potential to spill over in the Indo-Pacific region.
