Japan PM Takaichi warns of China 'coercion', vows security overhaul

Japanese Prime Minister ‌Sanae Takaichi ​warned of growing Chinese "coercion" in her first post-election speech to parliament on Thursday, and pledged to overhaul defence strategy, ease curbs on military exports and strengthen critical supply chains. Takaichi's four-month tenure has been ‌marked by a diplomatic dispute with China after she said Japan could deploy military force to counter any attack on Taiwan that also threatened Japanese territory. After turning a fragile majority into a landslide victory in this month's lower house election, Takaichi outlined an agenda aimed at countering what ‌she sees as a growing economic and security threat from China and its regional partners.

With more than two-thirds of seats now ‌controlled by her ruling coalition, she faces little resistance to her plans. "Japan faces its most severe and complex security environment since World War Two," Takaichi said, pointing to China's expanding military activity, its closer security ties with Russia and North Korea’s rising nuclear missile capability.

The government would revise Japan's three core security documents this year to ⁠produce a ​new defence strategy and would accelerate a ⁠review of military export rules to expand overseas sales and strengthen defence companies, she added. "China has intensified its attempts to unilaterally change the status quo through force ⁠or coercion in the East China Sea and South China Sea," she told lawmakers.

Takaichi has hastened a military build-up launched in 2023 that will double ​Japan's defence spending to 2% of GDP by the end of March, making it one of the world’s biggest military spenders, ⁠despite its pacifist constitution. She also announced plans for a national intelligence council chaired by her to consolidate information gathered across agencies, including police and the defence ministry.

Japan does ⁠not ​have foreign or domestic intelligence services such as the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or Britain's MI5. Beyond security, Takaichi proposed a Japanese version of the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) to screen overseas investment in sensitive sectors, and said rules governing land purchases by foreigners would ⁠be reviewed. She pledged to strengthen supply chains to reduce dependence on "specific countries" and work with allies to secure critical materials, including rare ⁠earths, around Minamitori, a remote Pacific ⁠island. Takaichi also promised to speed the restart of reactors idled since the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in 2011.

"A nation that does not take on challenges has no future," she said in concluding remarks. "Politics that ‌only seeks to protect ‌cannot inspire hope."