Japan Military Power 2022: Rise of a Global Power

The debate about Japanese pacifist Defense Policy has intensified due to fears of China’s growing assertiveness, North Korea’s ballistic missile tests, and Russian deployment of missiles and naval forcesnear disputed islands. Japan is calibrating it’s traditionally pacifist defense policy towards a more offensive one in response to these growing threats. Eighty years ago, the Empire of Japan had one of the world’s most powerful navies, and its armies began a massive campaign against much of Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Its territory stretched across much of China, and its military seemed to be unstoppable – yet less than four years later, its cities were destroyed, and its army and navy vanquished. Japan was disarmed after its WW II defeat. But a month after the Korean War began in 1950, U.S. occupation forces in Japan created a 75,000-member lightly armed de facto army called the National Police Reserve. The humbly named Self Defense Force being country’s current military was founded in 19