Posted on 04/19/2008 8:28:41 PM PDT by Flavius
TOKYO - JAPAN plans to formulate a new defense policy outline to underline the need to meet China's rapid military buildup, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday.
The outline, which spells out basic guidelines for Japan's defense policies, is reviewed by the government once every five years and had been revised in 1995 and in 2004 to meet changes in the international military environment, the paper said.
The government initially planned to make only minor changes to the 2004 defense policy outline in the next fiscal year beginning in April 2009.
But it decided to set up a new policy outline to signal more clearly the need for Japan to develop its defense capability amid China's military buildup, which is proceeding at a pace far beyond Japan's initial forecast, the Yomiuri said, without citing sources.
(Excerpt) Read more at straitstimes.com ...
Old Plan - Call US.
New Plan - SOL...
What they going call in Godzilla LOL!
Until they scrap or revise article 9 it won’t really matter much what their policy is. Japan has one of the largest defense budgets in the world. Unfortunately for them however, they get very little bang for their buck. Their constitution forbids them from having armed forces so they get around it by having “self defense forces”, but self defense forces do not include practical deterrents like bombers, cruise missiles and many other implements of modern war.
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