London, UK: Japan unveiled its most significant military build-up since World War Two with a $320 billion plan to buy missiles capable of striking China and prepare it for sustained battle as regional tensions and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine fuel war worries.

Based on current budgets, the expansive, five-year plan will elevate Japan to the position of third-largest military spender in the world, behind the United States and China.

According to Prime Minister Mr. Fumio Kishida, the ramp-up was “my answer to the various security challenges that we face.”

Mr. Fumio Kishida’s government is concerned that Russia’s precedent could provoke China to attack Taiwan, threatening nearby Japanese islands, disrupting supplies of advanced semiconductors and putting a potential stranglehold on sea lanes that supply Middle East oil.

“This is setting a new heading for Japan. If appropriately executed, the Self-Defense Forces will be a real, world-class effective force,” Mr. Yoji Koda, a former Maritime Self-Defense Force admiral, who commanded the Japanese fleet in 2008, remarked.

The government also announced plans to increase the stockpile of spare parts and other munitions, expand transport capacity and develop cyber warfare capabilities. Japan handed up the ability to wage war and the means to do so in its post-war constitution, which was written by Americans.

A different national security plan statement pledged tight cooperation with the US and other like-minded countries to deter threats to the existing international order and singled out China, Russia, and North Korea.

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