Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the country urgently needed to strengthen its military capabilities more quickly amid growing security risks involving China, North Korea and Russia.
In the introduction to Japan’s annual defense white paper released Tuesday, Koizumi said strengthening and modernizing the country’s defense capabilities was more urgent and critical than ever.
China and North Korea were expanding their military strength in the Asia-Pacific region while military cooperation was also deepening between China and Russia and between Russia and North Korea, he said.
The white paper said Chinese military activity around Japan was increasing and had expanded beyond the so-called First Island Chain toward the Second Island Chain.
It cited several events in 2025, including Chinese aircraft-carrier operations and two incidents in June and July in which Chinese military aircraft flew extremely close to Japanese planes.
Japanese fighter jets scrambled 595 times in the year through March 31, 2026, according to the paper. Of those missions, 366 responded to Chinese aircraft and 214 to Russian aircraft. The previous year’s total was 704, higher than in other recent years.
Japan has increased defense spending, expanded security cooperation in Asia, deployed missiles on remote islands, pursued counterstrike capabilities and eased weapons-export rules.
The white paper warned, however, that limitations in the country’s defense-production industry could hinder future weapons procurement and technological innovation.
Koizumi said he had held frank discussions with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the unbreakable Japan-U.S. alliance. Japan is also strengthening security cooperation with the Philippines, Australia and South Korea in pursuit of a free and open Indo-Pacific, he said.
The security environment was rapidly becoming more complex, making greater crisis-response capacity across the Indo-Pacific essential, Koizumi said.
China has expressed concern about Japan’s military preparations, particularly after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments about Taiwan. Beijing has accused Japan of moving toward a new militarism as relations between the countries have deteriorated.
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