Former Japanese Self-Defense Official: Japan is Moving Toward a "Combat-Ready" Military System

Japan’s senior military journalist and former Japan Air Self-Defense Forces officer, Makoto Konishi, said at a lecture held in Tokyo on the 4th by a Japanese senior military journalist and former Japan Air Self-Defense officer, on the 4th that Japan’s defense work is seeing major moves in terms of its systems, budget, and actual deployments, and that it has gradually deviated from the “exclusively defense” principle and is moving toward a “combat-capable” military system. In his speech, Konishi systematically reviewed Japan’s military deployments in recent years in places such as the southwestern islands, and pointed out that the Japanese government has pushed deployments ahead regardless of public sentiment. Konishi said the Japanese government is also continuously increasing defense spending and seeking to revise the “Security Three Documents,” and that this integrated push is no longer simply an “improvement in defense capabilities” in the ordinary sense, but is gradually building a warfighting system. “This process will not only exacerbate public anxiety, but will also put Japan on a dangerous path,” Konishi said. (Xinhua News Agency)