A Russian expert has raised alarm over Japan's accelerating military buildup and the creation of a centralized intelligence body, warning the moves will escalate tensions across the Asia-Pacific region.
Vasily Kashin, director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS) at Moscow's Higher School of Economics, noted that Japan is transforming its military-industrial capabilities with the aim to become a "full-scale great military power" operating in lockstep with the United States.
"Japan is continuing a long-term trend of transformation of its defense, intelligence and other related industrial capabilities in line with turning Japan into a full-scale great military power. The fact is that the Japanese are doing this in close cooperation with the United States, and the goal is to greatly expand Japan's role in the U.S. system of alliances using the Japanese military and defense industrial capabilities for assistance in the American operations far beyond the Northeast Asian region," said Kashin.
Kashin pointed to several major weapons programs Japan has advanced in recent years, including the deployment of the first generation of long-range strike weapons based on the Type 12 cruise missile. He said Japan is also pursuing hypersonic weapons and "even more advanced breakthrough weapons", such as railguns.
Japan launched the National Intelligence Bureau in late July. The new body, an upgrade from the former Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, serves as the secretariat for the National Intelligence Council, a central command structure headed by the prime minister and composed of top ministers.
Kashin said the move marks a fundamental shift in how Japan conducts espionage activities, which will intensify regional tensions.
"What Japan is doing now, they are centralizing and reorganizing their intelligence activities. Before, they had the intelligence components embedded into a number of Japanese government agencies. Now, all of these will be centralized under the former Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office. And that would pave the way for creating a more strong centralized intelligence agency capable of operations of much larger scale. That means that the clandestine war between the intelligence agencies already present in the region would intensify," said the expert.
The Japanese government has framed its military expansion as a necessary response to what it describes as growing external threats in the region. Kashin, however, dismissed that rationale.
"To justify the ongoing very rapid, significant expansion of the Japanese defense capabilities, they need justification and the best justification they could find is 'China threat' theory. China is not militarizing, the share of defense expenditure in the Chinese GDP is relatively stable and has been stable for a very long time, which is not the case for Japan and many other U.S. allies who have greatly increased the share of defense expenditure in their economies," said the expert.
Russian expert sounds alarm on Japan's military buildup, centralized intelligence
