Japan, having legalized the possession of preemptive strike capability by reforming security strategy in the late 2022, is now in the process of its full-scale implementation.

The budget for the 2023 fiscal year recently passed at the House of Representatives of Japan includes the largest-ever defense budget in the amount of about ￥ 6.8 trillion. It is also said that it includes the colossal fund of ￥ 3 trillion for defense buildup.

That Japan has set defense budget of almost ￥ 10 trillion signifies that it set down to increasing defense expenditure to more than 2% of GDP.

More serious is that Japan, under the pretext of the possession of “counterattack capability”, is attempting to squander a considerable amount of defense budget into developing different kinds of military equipment to preemptively attack other’s missile launch base.

Typical example is that Japan is planning to purchase 400 “Tomahawk” cruise missiles from the U.S. within this year and deploy them for action by 2026.

“Tomahawk” cruise missile is a long-range, high-precision guided missile with various ranges and a notorious WMD used in Gulf war, Iraqi war and other aggressive wars the U.S. waged to realize its strategy for world supremacy.

Japan has an evil military intention to place the “Tomahawk” cruise missile on different Aegis-system warships in order to put China and Russia, to say nothing of the DPRK, within its firing range.

As a result, the current Japanese government has ripped off the mask of a “peace state” that had been advocated, though outwardly, by the preceding regimes since the end of World War II, and even removed what is called “total defense” which is a braking device in existence for form’s sake.

Japan, a country that inflicted indescribably catastrophic damage upon the Asian people including the Korean people, is scheming to possess weapons for pre-emptive strike while continuously increasing defense expenditure. This is no more than a dangerous military maneuver that wrecks the regional peace and stability.

This is no accidental that opposition parties and people of Japan are strongly rejecting the government’s military expenditure increase, saying that peace and security cannot be guaranteed by the increased defense budget. They also demand the Japanese government to maintain the principle of pacifism stipulated in the constitution.

It is crystal clear what its finish line will be if Japan stubbornly repeats its history of aggression.

It is quite natural that the international community is raising their voices of justice to stop worrisome moves of Japan to become a military power with high vigilance.

Kim Sol Hwa

Researcher of Institute for Studies of Japan

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DPRK