Abe’s approval rating clicked higher as a result of his handling of the hostage beheading crisis, his clear condemnation of Islamic State, and his plans to fund coalition countries fighting the extremist group. His more muscular security policy isn’t playing as well in China. In a speech last year marking the 77th anniversary of the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese President Xi Jinping criticized the Japanese for their tendency to “beautify the history of aggression.” This came just weeks after Abe’s cabinet had reinterpreted the constitutional defense provisions. South Korea, a Japanese colony from 1910 to 1945, has reacted cautiously to Abe’s national security overhaul. Shi Yongming, an associate research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, says Abe has used the recent hostage crisis to push his military agenda forward. “Scrapping geographical limits for Japan’s collective defense will be a big breakthrough for Abe,” Shi says. “The move will be a big step further in Japan’s attempt to re-emerge as a military power.” Abe is setting new spending priorities with the Chinese in mind: Japan is building up its amphibious force and ability to retake islands.
The U.S. and Japan have collaborated on sophisticated antimissile defense systems, including one that features a 21-inch projectile called the SM-3 Block IIA. It’s bigger and faster than current antimissile projectiles and is also designed to take out low-orbiting satellites.
Last May, Washington and Tokyo discussed coordinating their GPS systems to better track what’s going on in space and in the oceans. Japan has four spy satellites, and a group of Japanese companies led by Sky Perfect Jsat Holdings and NEC is building two communications satellites that will transmit encrypted data.
If Abe’s national security makeover succeeds, Japan’s evolution into a “normal state,” as LDP strategists say, will get a big boost.
—With Ting Shi and Isabel Reynolds