A Nervous Japan Ponders Missile Defense
With Kim just across the East Sea, pacifism loses its allure
By: Todd Crowell
Defending Japan against an enemy ballistic missile attack has become the issue of the day among security planners here. Tokyo thought it had the answer in establishing a ballistic missile shield called Aegis Ashore (as opposed to installing Aegis systems aboard navy destroyers).
But the government canceled the program citing costs, opposition from locals and probably some discrete lobbying from China. That left the dangling question: if not Aegis Ashore then what? The default answer is to give Japan a first-strike capability. In other words, the ability to knock out say, a North Korean missile on the launch pad before the missile can take aim at Japan.
Whether or not to acquire a first-strike capability is probably the most sweeping security issue since 2015 when the government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rammed through parliament a series of security measures, including declaring that collective defense is legal, and tightening laws against leaking classified information.