As Beijing intensifies its intimidation campaign against Tokyo for the Japanese prime minister’s comments regarding Taiwan, experts say this aggression is instead pushing Japan to accelerate its defense modernization and deepen its security ties with Washington.
Japan’s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on Dec. 10 that Beijing failed to provide “sufficient information” to ensure safety when notifying Tokyo that its military drills would begin, according to a Jiji Press report.
Koizumi’s comments followed incidents on Dec. 6 in which Chinese fighter jets that took off from Chinese carrier Liaoning intermittently locked their radars on Japanese aircraft near Okinawa. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the actions “extremely regrettable.”…