"Japan’s present and future national security strategy: Five key challenges to watch" - by CWP alum Adam P. Liff
Since her historic election as Japan’s prime minister on October 21, Sanae Takaichi has hit the ground running on diplomacy and defense, generating an impressive array of global headlines. At a summit with Donald Trump mere days into her tenure, Takaichi pledged a “new golden age of the Japan-U.S. alliance” and committed to “further enhance [its] deterrence and response capabilities.” This followed her strikingly ambitious announcements to raise Japan’s defense-related spending to 2 percent of GDP two years ahead of schedule and to expedite revision of three major national security documents last updated just three years ago.
On November 7, the security concerns driving Takaichi’s pledges were thrown into sharp relief by Beijing’s exaggerated reaction to her comments in the Diet about whether a Taiwan Strait contingency could prompt Japan to come to the defense of its U.S. ally. Takaichi’s remarks did not change Japan’s long-standing position, but Beijing—and many foreign media and commentators—sought to fan the flames by mistranslating and misrepresenting what she said and the context behind it. Beijing responded with explicit and implicit threats—its consul-general in Osaka even suggested that Takaichi be beheaded—and economic and military forms of coercion. These events highlight the urgency behind Japan’s ambitious security reform agenda and the essential role of the U.S.-Japan alliance in regional peace, stability, and prosperity. The stakes for Japan, the United States, and the world are immense.
Op-edJapan’s present and future national security strategy: Five key challenges to watch
Christopher B. Johnstone and Adam P. Liff - December 17, 2025
Adam P. Liff is a professor of East Asian international relations and the founding director of the 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative at Indiana University, as well as a non-resident senior fellow with the Center for Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.
Photo Credit: https://www.csis.org/analysis/japans-present-and-future-national-security-strategy-five-key-challenges-watch
By 首相官邸ホームページ, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=178708232
