Japan uses 'China threat' narrative to justify its military expansion: analyst

Japan's latest Defense White Paper hypes up the so-called "China threat" as an excuse to pursue its largest military expansion since World War II and break away from its long-standing exclusively defense-oriented policy, a Chinese analyst said on Thursday.

This year's white paper was released on Tuesday. The document continues to use the same security narrative outlined in Japan's 2022 National Security Strategy, which identified China as its biggest strategic challenge.

In an interview with China Global Television Network, Xu Yongzhi, an associate research fellow at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, noted that the document lays the groundwork for revising Japan's three key security documents later this year and accelerating its military buildup.

"With this positioning, Japan is like nothing but a thief crying 'stop thief'. In 2026, it plans to further revise its three key security documents. As we know, it's almost certain that Japan will further increase its defense spending and strengthen its military capabilities in new areas," Xu said.

The expert points out that a key change in this year's white paper is that Japan has provided more details on the deployment and development of offensive weapons, while dedicating a new section to the military application of AI and unmanned systems.

"Japan aims to send three signals to the outside world. First, its offensive weapons will achieve operational capability in a relatively concentrated period over the next two or three years. Second, the scale of these capabilities is considerable. Third, Japan is demonstrating that it has the ability to use such weapons," he said.

Xu added that Japan's latest moves are closely tied to its alliance with the United States.

"A key feature of the U.S. national security strategy and national defense strategy is that the United States expects its allies to take on greater, or even primary responsibility for intervening in regional affairs. Japan's actions are actually in line with this strategy," he said.

Japan's food self-sufficiency rate on a caloric intake basis dropped one percentage point to 37 percent in fiscal 2025, covering April 2025 to March 2026, marking a record low, according to the data released by the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on Friday.

The food self-sufficiency rate measures the proportion of domestically produced food in a country's total food supply.

The ministry attributed the decline largely to reduced rice consumption.

Rice has long been supplied mainly by domestic production and serves as a key pillar of Japan's food self-sufficiency. Rising prices have led households to cut back on rice consumption, which significantly pulled down the overall food self-sufficiency rate.