【英文】美国传统基金会报告：美国应敦促日本发展远程打击能力：宪法、技术和官僚障碍（17页）

英文研究报告 2021年08月31日 05:10 管理员

Abe’s advocacy was less successful for Tokyo developing strike capabilities to target other nations that had contemplated or were contemplating attacks on Japan. Abe’s successor as prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, has not been a strong a proponent—instead devoting his attention toward domestic policy reforms and a myriad of challenges, including Japan’s response to COVID-19. Suga is less likely than Abe to spend his political capital and Japan’s limited defense budget on new capabilities that would face strong domestic and regional resistance. While muted for now, however, the issue could quickly return to the forefront as a result either of North Korean provocations or increased United States pressure for Japan to assume a bigger regional security role.

Given the relentlessly escalating regional security threats, Washington and Tokyo should be working closely to assess Japan’s need to develop strike capabilities. In so doing, however, they should be cognizant of the numerous constitutional, budgetary, technical, and bureaucratic obstacles.Japan warned that its security environment is “changing at extremely high speeds [and] becoming more complex far more quickly than anticipated.”The Abe Administration assessed that “North Korea in recent years has launched ballistic missiles at unprecedented frequency, rapidly improving its operational capabilities such as simultaneous launch and surprise attack [which are] grave and imminent threats to Japan’s security and signifcantly undermine the peace and security of the region.”