- The guidelines include a goal of raising Japan's military spending between 2023 and 2027 to 2% of GDP.

Citizens protesting Japan's new attack plan.

Japan approves its new Defense plan with the ability to attack enemy bases

The Government of Japan approved this Friday its new Defense guidelines. For the first time, they include giving themselves the ability to attack enemy bases in the event of a threat to national security, as well as a record increase in their military spending.

The Cabinet led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the green light this Friday to the three new documents that mark the Defense roadmap for the next decade, which come after two years of negotiations within the Governing coalition and surrounded by controversy.

Counterattack ability

The main novelty, called "counterattack capability" in the documents, stipulates that Japan must have the military means to hit targets in enemy territory "within the minimum necessary self-defense measures", to deal with what is defined as " the direst security environment since World War II".

The documents set out three conditions under which these "counterattacks" could be carried out: in the event of an aggression against Japan or an allied country that jeopardizes Japan's survival, when there are no appropriate means to repel the attack, and as long as the use of force is kept to a minimum.

This measure has generated numerous criticisms from the opposition and legal experts for its difficult fit into the Japanese Constitution, which establishes that the country can only resort to military force to defend itself and that it renounces war to resolve international conflicts.

Japan has not had the military capabilities to reach long-distance enemy targets since the end of World War II due to its pacifist Magna Carta and its bilateral security agreement with the United States, a country that guarantees the defense of the archipelago against any threat against its territory.

Acquire weaponry

To equip itself with these new capabilities, Japan plans to acquire "standoff" or remote attack weapons, among which the purchase of US-made Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles and the domestic development of hypersonic missiles, anti-ship guided missiles, and combat drones, among others.

The new Japanese Defense roadmap is aimed at adapting to the military rise in Beijing, defined as "an unprecedented strategic challenge", to the constant launching of missiles by North Korea and to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a country with which Japan maintains territorial disputes.

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