For seven decades, Japan's Self-Defence Forces were precisely what their name suggested — a force configured for territorial defence, prohibited by constitutional interpretation from possessing offensive capabilities or projecting power beyond Japanese territory. The National Security Strategy published in December 2022 revised that interpretation root and branch. The procurement programme that followed has now been substantially delivered.

Japan's defence budget reached 9.7 trillion yen in fiscal year 2024 — 2.1 percent of GDP — making it the third-largest defence spender globally after the United States and China and the largest in Asia excluding China. The spending has funded a specific capability portfolio: 1,000 Type-12 extended-range cruise missiles capable of striking targets 1,500 kilometres distant; the first of four new Aegis-equipped destroyers with ballistic missile defence capability; the initial operational capability of the domestically developed F-X next-generation combat aircraft in partnership with the United Kingdom and Italy; and a new space domain command responsible for protecting Japanese satellite infrastructure.

The strategic logic is explicitly deterrent: Japan's government has publicly acknowledged for the first time that counterstrike capability — the ability to strike adversary launch sites following a missile attack on Japan — is a legitimate element of self-defence. Legal scholars within the Defence Ministry have concluded this interpretation is compatible with Article 9 of the constitution; opposition parties and several constitutional law academics dispute that conclusion, and litigation is pending.

South Korea and Australia have publicly welcomed the transformation. China's Foreign Ministry has described it as "a dangerous revival of Japanese militarism" — language Tokyo has dismissed as reflexive rather than analytical.

"We are not becoming aggressive," said Defence Minister Minoru Kihara. "We are becoming serious. There is a difference, and our neighbours who wish us well understand it."