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By Micah McCartney
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Japan's Defense Ministry has confirmed it will move forward with plans to bolster air defenses on a remote island near China-claimed Taiwan, giving 2031 as the target deployment date.
The announcement is a sign that hard-liner Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, flush from elections this month that gave her a historic supermajority in the lower house, intends to press ahead, despite Beijing's warnings.
Newsweek has contacted Japan's Defense Ministry and China's Foreign Ministry for comment by email.
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Why It Matters
The move comes as China continues its unprecedented military buildup while piling pressure on Taiwan. Beijing's ruling Chinese Communist Party claims Taiwan as its territory, despite never having governed there, and has vowed to achieve unification—by force if necessary.
Rising tensions have prompted Japan, a key U.S. security ally, to boost defense spending. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party also seeks to relax long-standing export curbs on lethal weapons to boost interoperability with regional partners and lower procurement costs.
What To Know
The plan is to deploy the Type 03 Chu-SAM missile surface-to-air missile systems to Okinawa Prefecture's Yonaguni Island—situated about 70 miles from Taiwan's east coast—by fiscal year 2030. The timeline could change depending on progress upgrading related facilities, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said during a news briefing on Tuesday.
"Currently, we are proceeding with necessary tasks, such as basic studies concerning facility improvements for the deployment of troops to the eastern side of the garrison," Koizumi said.
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Mounted on 8x8 trucks, the Type 03 uses phased-array radar capable of tracking up to 100 aircraft, ballistic missiles or drones and can engage about a dozen targets at once. China has described the plan as "extremely dangerous." However, the Type 03's range of about 30 miles falls well short of Taiwan's east coast, let alone Chinese airspace.
Still, the deployment has raised concerns that Yonaguni could become a target in the event of a conflict involving U.S. and Japanese forces. Okinawa already hosts a large concentration of military facilities, including about 70 percent of U.S. forces' Japan installations.
Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing have been elevated since November, when Takaichi said a hypothetical Chinese blockade of Taiwan could constitute an emergency warranting intervention. Beijing framed the remarks as evidence of Japanese remilitarization and has since imposed a range of punitive measures.
In her first address to the newly convened parliament on Friday, Takaichi reiterated her government's commitment to strengthening Japan's defenses. She warned that the country "faces its most severe and complex security environment since World War II," citing China's growing assertiveness, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and North Korea's advancing nuclear weapons program.
What People Are Saying
Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki said in December, per local media: "One must carefully consider what message is being sent. ... I'm not convinced they [Japan's central government] fully understand the situation on the ground."
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Tuesday when asked about the Liberal Democratic Party's push to expand lethal weapons exports: "In recent years, Japan has been revamping its security and defense policies. ... The latest move has once again laid bare the Japanese right-wing forces' ambitions to breach the postwar international order, break free from domestic laws and remilitarize Japan."
What Happens Next
Koizumi said the Defense Ministry would hold a town hall meeting on Yonaguni on March 2 to take questions from local residents.
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