With Transcript
..
August 26th 2024 around 11:30 a.m.
Japan's self-defense Force put its
fighter jets on high alert The reason an
enemy aircraft had invaded Japanese
airspace it was a Chinese military y9
intelligence gathering aircraft that was
detected near Japan's djo Islands after
which Japan issued a warning to the
Chinese aircraft this is the picture of
the aircraft that the Japanese Ministry
of Defense provided according to the
Japanese defense Ministry
this was the Chinese military's first
known Invasion into its territorial
airspace the harsh truth why China keeps
doing this to Japan is because it is
militarily far more Superior than Japan
in fact it's not just China two other
nuclear Powers could also wreak havoc on
Japan at any time but the sentence would
become Irrelevant in the next few years
because what Japan is doing will blow
your mind and Japan's enemies are hating
it 23rd of December 2022 the Japanese
cabinet announced a budget that
surprised the entire world it made
Global headlines as it was the first
time since World War II that the world
had seen something like this prompting
Japan to pump up defense spending
raising it by more than 27% to around
$50 billion the long-standing pacifist
Nation now third behind the US and China
in December of 2022 Japan announced its
2023 budget but what shocked the world
was that Japanese prime minister fumio
kashid
approved a whopping 6.8 trillion yen or
about 51.4 billion to upgrade their
military this was a
26.3% increase in defense spending
compared to 2022 and its largest
military budget increase since World War
II not just that this sleeping giant has
even taken bold moves to become one of
the top military powers in the next few
years as of 2024 Japan is the eighth
largest military spender globally but
not anymore because things are about to
change dramatically and fast on December
16th 2022 Japan unveiled its biggest
military buildup with its $320 billion
5-year defense plan that will make Japan
the world's third largest military
spender after the United States and
China and these preparations are aimed
at countering some of the most
significant threats that have not only
emerged but continue to grow around
Japan it even published a document on
its National Security strategy that has
mentioned the measures it would take to
counter its threats Japan is abandoning
its pacifism all while firmly being
aligned with the US so the question is
what instigated a pacifist Nation like
Japan to take such a bold move what are
Japan's biggest threats and how is Japan
planning to counter them but before we
dive in know that the countries we are
going to be exposing might not like this
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it reaches more people all right now
let's begin the video after World War II
Japan remained as a peaceful Nation
avoiding involvement in any major
conflicts in fact article 9 of the
Japanese Constitution contains a no war
clause and this basically means that
Japan will not use war or military force
in settling international disputes it
has formerly renounced War as a
sovereign right this article came into
effect on May 3rd 1947 immediately after
World War II this can even be seen in
their military budgets announced over
the years according to data Japan spent
more than 1% of their GDP decades back
in
1960 after 1960 this number was less
than 1% of their GDP but things started
changing and this number finally
exceeded 1% in the 2020 budget but
according to the goal it is outlined in
its 2022 National sec strategy Japan is
all set to increase this number to 2% of
its GDP in the next few years in fact
Japan is even walking the talk in 2023
Japan spent 1.2% of their GDP on defense
this number increased to 1.6% in 2024
which was 55.9 billion USD it is
expected to rise by 2% year onye over
the next 5 years till it reaches the 2%
Mark so the question is is what suddenly
instigated Japan to make such ambitious
defense plans the simple answer to this
is that Japan didn't suddenly wake up
and realize that it has to strengthen
its military it started realizing this
after numerous events that took place
over a period of multiple years so this
move was inevitable and it finally
happened in 2022 and these threats are
some of the most dangerous a nation can
face to the point where they could even
undermine the country's sovereignty
something like a ballistic missile
flying over your country or enemy
missiles Landing in nearby ocean waters
seems scary right we'll soon discuss
these incidents in detail but this is
what Japan has been facing Japan has
been dealing with serious threats from
three nearby countries these countries
are China Russia and North Korea and a
defense document released by the United
States in October of 2022 described
China as a pacing challenge Russia as an
acute threat and North Korea as a
persistent threat threat although this
assessment was made in the context of
the United States it is almost equally
relevant in the case of Japan to break
it down into simpler terms China is
viewed as a pacing challenge this means
that China is a major competitor that is
rapidly expanding its power and
influence on the world stage Russia is
seen as an acute threat meaning it poses
a direct and immediate danger to the
security and interest of its adversaries
and North Korea is viewed as a
persistent threat which simply means
that North Korea is a long-standing and
ongoing threat due to its nuclear
weapons program and ballistic missile
development these may sound simple but
they might become existential threats to
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before all right now let's get back to
the topic at hand starting with our dear
friend China which reports an average
defense budget of over $200 billion it
might actually be three times that
amount because according to a US Think
Tank China spent 710 6 billion USD on
its military budget in 2024 compared to
the 229 billion it officially reported
China which possesses 410 nuclear
warheads as of 2023 could more than
triple this number to 1,500 by 2035
although these nukes are a huge threat
to Japan what has become a headache for
Japan are actually the notorious Chinese
incursions to intimidate Japan and
insert its growing military power in the
region
for example military analysts suggest
that the latest example of airspace
Invasion we saw in the beginning might
be China's way of challenging Japan's
borders China claims control over a
large area of the continental shelf not
just in the South China Sea but also on
the East China Sea and this incursion
into dunjo Islands airspace also
occurred in the East China Sea as well
we will discuss all these issues shortly
but the latest case of airspace Invasion
we saw wasn't the only case over the
past 20 years Japan has faced more and
more foreign aircraft intrusions last
year Japan's self-defense Force sent
fighter jets 669 times to intercept
foreign planes which is more than triple
the number from 20 years ago
surprisingly out of these 669 cases 479
cases which is a whopping 71.6% of the
cases were in response to Chinese
aircraft sightings as reported by
Japan's Ministry of Defense on top of
that Japan has been intensifying its
activities across the entire region
surrounding Japan including the East
China Sea particularly around the Saku
Islands the Sea of Japan and the Western
Pacific Ocean including areas near the
ISU and oasa Islands in fact the largest
ever military exercise China conducted
in the Taiwan straight on the 4th of
August 2022 was one of the most
controversial military exercises this is
because five ballistic missiles out of
the nine ballistic missiles fired by
China during the SE exercise landed
within Japan's exclusive economic zone
this was perceived as a threat to local
residents this might initially looked
like a coincidence since the Taiwan
Strait is very close to the Japanese
Waters but it was actually a very strong
message to Japan and China actually had
a very strong reason to send this
message in fact the entire military
exercise not just this event was meant
to convey a powerful message to the
world surprisingly the reason behind
this exercise and even most of the in
ity between Japan and China is actually
Taiwan yeah you heard that right Taiwan
is one of the major reasons behind
Japan's and China's conflict now you may
ask how has Taiwan become a reason
behind their conflict actually this is
the reason now to the escalating
tensions between the US and China with
house Speaker Nancy Pelosi meeting with
taiwan's President overnight China
accusing the US of playing with fire on
August 2nd of 2022 US House speaker
Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in a
significant show of support for the
island nation this was so significant
because she was the highest level Us
official to visit Taiwan in 25 years but
China was so enraged just by the idea of
the US officials visit to Taiwan that
even before she visited Taiwan China
literally said that its military will
never sit idly by if she visits Taiwan
Chinese foreign Ministry spokesperson
Zan even threatened serious
repercussions he said and I quote there
will be serious consequences if she
insists on making the visit but even
after these threats Nancy Pelosi made
the visit but what China did later was
one of the biggest military exercises
just 2 days after her visit China
conducted its largest ever military
exercise in the Taiwan straight and this
was the same military exercise where the
missiles landed in Japan's exclusive
economic zone this exercise also began
just hours after China canceled a
planned meeting between its foreign
minister and Japan due to its anger over
a G7 statement urging China to resolve
Taiwan tensions peacefully now you might
ask if this is mostly China's the US's
and taiwan's issue then where is Japan
in this picture and how could the Taiwan
issue become a major challenge for Japan
the answer lies in the location of
Japanese Islands if we see the map of
Japan we generally know just the
mainland of Japan but in reality it has
multiple islands that are very close to
Taiwan and China in fact some of these
islands are so close to Taiwan that the
yonaguni island is just 110 km or about
68 Mi away from Taiwan and this makes it
the nearest Japanese island to Taiwan
although this island is not militarized
yet Japan is planning on building a
military base on Yanagi and extend the
airport and Port considering the
Potential Threat from China in case it
attacks Taiwan but the main island that
poses a real threat to China is not the
yonaguni island but the okanawa island
this is because okanawa alone hosts 32
US military bases which includes 30,000
active troops from the USA in fact
okanawa makes up just 1% of Japanese
land mass but hosts 70% of all US
military bases in the country but the
thing that intimidates China the most is
the fact that this island is just 9 km
or about 316 mi from Mainland Taiwan so
in case of a conflict between the US and
China on the Taiwan issue these islands
are bound to get dragged into the
conflict and even the civilians would
suffer now Japan being one of the NATO
Partners in the Indo Pacific region
would definitely back the US in case of
a conflict so China would definitely try
to prevent a US Counterattack from its
Japanese bases so Japan especially the
Japanese Islands could be dragged into
this Taiwan conflict so to prevent any
Chinese aggression on Japan territories
Japan has to upgrade its military
capabilities but there's another lethal
threat that China poses to Japan in case
of a conflict
if China attacks Taiwan and threatens
nearby Japanese Islands they're worried
that this will disrupt the supply of
advanced semiconductors and block sea
lanes that Supply oil to Japan this is
because almost 95% of the oil imported
by Japan comes from the Middle East on
top of that Japan is the world's largest
importer of liquefied natural gas
another reason a conflict could be
disaster for Japan is that either it
would put their key Maritime shipping
Lane into the line of fire or China
would block them in fact it's not just
about energy Japan is highly dependent
on the import of Natural Resources as
well for example Japan is the largest
net buyer of food products in the world
additionally China's growing Ambitions
in the South China Sea and the entire
region surrounding Japan including in
the East China Sea is also a threat to
Japan so it becomes extremely important
for Japan to protect its trading routes
and for this it would undoubtedly need a
strong military the Taiwan issue isn't
the only reason behind the bitterness
between Japan and China there's
something that goes decades back in the
past during World War II today Japan is
much smaller compared to the peak Japan
of a few decades ago because this is
what Japan looked like at its peak this
Empire at its peak encompassed a vast
territory spanning across East Asia and
Southeast Asia it included large
portions of China the entire Korean
Peninsula Taiwan the Philippines parts
of Indonesia Malaysia brunai Singapore
Myanmar and Thailand they also
controlled numerous islands in the
Pacific Ocean including the Mariana
Islands carollyn Islands Marshall
Islands and parts of the Solomon Islands
these territories were collectively
known as the South Seas mandate which
Japan received after World War I as a
League of Nations
mandate however the degree of Japanese
control varied across these territories
with some areas experiencing direct Rule
and others governed indirectly through
puppet regimes or military
occupation as you can see in the map it
also shows a huge portion of present-day
China under Japanese control this
included the northeastern region of
Manchuria which they had annexed to form
the puet state of
manuo additionally Japan occupied large
areas of northern China including major
cities like Beijing and tianin yeah you
heard that right Japan once controlled
the present-day capital of China they
also controlled parts of central and
Eastern China extending their influences
to cities such as naning Wuhan Shanghai
and Ningbo although Japan had huge areas
under its control at its peak its
methods of occupation were often brutal
and inhumane Japan committed numerous
war crimes including mass killings
torture and the use of forced labor they
forced hundreds of thousands of women
into sexual slavery on top of that a
notorious Japanese biological warfare
unit known as Unit 731
conducted extremely horrific experiments
on prisoners of war and
civilians this unit was part of the
Japanese Imperial Army and their
experiments were carried out primarily
at a specific research facility unit
located in Harbin China One such region
where the Japanese committed horrific
war crimes was the city of
Nanjing on December 13th 1937 during
World War II the Japanese troops
attacked China and captured the city of
nangjing after which more than 300,000
victims were brutally killed by the
Japanese troops in fact the Nanjing
Massacre was one of the three large
scale massacres of World War II even
after decades China has deep scars from
this incident and this can be proven by
the fact that China declared December
13th as a National Memorial Day for the
victims of the nuning massacre in fact
this is such a critical issue that
Global times the mouthpiece of the CCP
published an article with this headline
which says that China Japan and ties are
under reconsideration on National
Memorial Day additionally even Chinese
schools and universities teach about the
atrocities committed by Japan during the
war so this is a very sensitive topic
for the Chinese and another reason for
the hate against the Japanese the third
reason is an ongoing Conflict for the
disputed islands called Saku in Japanese
and diu in Mandarin these islands are
currently a part of Japan but China
claims it as their territory and China
is in mood to back off from these claims
this can be proven by the fact that
Chinese government ships keep entering
Japanese territorial water near the
disputed Islands in fact according to a
Japanese broadcaster in HK China has
made 23 incursions in 2023
alone analysts say that China's ongoing
military aggression in the region
including joint patrols with Russia
around
Japan justifies Tokyo's efforts to
strengthen its defense capabilities and
you heard that right Japan is also
dealing with the second largest military
power Russia and even they have had some
bitter ongoing disputes for decades
Japan's prime minister has lashed out at
Russia's president saying that Dimitri
medvedev's visit to a disputed island
chain is deeply regrettable it's the
first visit by a Russian leader to the
region which has been a source of
tension for the two Nations for 65 years
at the end of World War II Russia
captured four islands of the cural
island chain from Japan and these these
were kunashiri atoru shikotan and the
habomai islands on the other hand Japan
claims these islands as its Northern
Territories multiple attempts were made
to resolve this issue but the kurl
islands have remained a disputed
territory since no formal peace treaty
has been signed by both Japan and Russia
since the second world war both these
countries have discussed this issue for
decades to reach an agreement but to no
avail but at one point some level of
success was achieved through discussions
between the top leaders of both both
countries for example the conflict eased
in 2016 when the two countries agreed on
joint economic activities including
tourism projects on the islands and Visa
free visits for Japanese citizens just
two years later former Japanese prime
minister shenzo AB proposed splitting
the islands and returning two of them to
Japan but Putin obviously rejected this
proposal but even at this point the
situation didn't worsen as it is now it
worsened because of the event that
became the Talk of the Town the Russia
Ukraine conflict this is because when
this conflict began in February of 2022
Japan imposed sanctions on Russia which
ended their economic cooperation around
the islands in response to these
sanctions Russia stopped peace treaty
talks over the Cals ended an agreement
that protected Japanese fishing vessels
from being seized around the islands and
held a military exercise on the islands
to practice defending against an
invasion these tensions reached a new
level on September 3rd third when Russia
revoked an agreement that allowed former
Japanese residents of the islands Visa
free visits at the same time the volok
2022 Naval exercise which included joint
operations with China took place on the
islands now the reason that makes these
islands an even bigger threat for Japan
is that Russia has militarized these
islands in fact Russia has increased its
permanent military presence on these
islands since at least
2015 Russia has built air strips
barracks deployed surfaced air missile
systems and even deployed an estimated
3,500 troops in December of 2021 Russia
announced the deployment of more Bastion
missiles on an island in the middle of
the cural chain known as the Mata Island
and this was extremely concerning for
Japan because this island is just 450 Mi
away from Japan it might seem that
Russia poses a significant threat to
Japan given the fact that it has the
second most powerful military in the
world the highest number of nuclear
weapons and advanced military technology
that could inflict substantial damage on
a country with a comparatively weaker
military but the reality is far
different Russia is already engaged in
Ukraine and has spent a lot of money and
resources there so opening another front
with Japan is almost next to impossible
for Russia for one simple reason Japan's
GDP is 4.2 trillion us and that of
Russia is just $
2.02 trillion so it's difficult for
Russia to spend a huge chunk of money on
another front so Japan's economy is
almost twice the economy of Russia's now
this obviously doesn't mean that Japan
should underestimate Russia again not to
forget the fact that Russia has very
close ties with Japan's biggest threat
China but the headache for Japan doesn't
end here it has challenges from one more
Nation run by a person who loves nukes
more than anything else apparently yeah
you must have guessed it it's none other
than the dictator of North Korea Kim
Jong-un this one incident is enough to
prove how dangerous the situation is in
October of 2022 North Korea launched a
ballistic missile that passed over
Japan's tohoku region and according to
Japan's Chief cabinet secretary hirokazu
matsuno this region is home to more than
8 million people and in case the test
had failed and the missile had fallen
short it could have endangered major
population areas these two countries
have unresolved issues such as the
Abduction of Japanese citizens by North
Korea and the status of the Korean
Peninsula from about 1977 to 1983 North
Korean military and intelligence
operatives kidnapped at least 17
Japanese citizens from Japan these
tensions still exist the shocking fact
is that North Korea has repeatedly
tested intercontinental ballistic
missiles in fact from just 2019 to 2023
North Korea has conducted more than 130
missile tests and most likely it will
continue this trend the the more
concerning fact is that North Korea has
50 nuclear weapons as of 2024 so the
North Korean dictator is not only
increasing the numbers but also
improving the range of these weapons the
fact that makes North Korea a more
dangerous country is its improving ties
with Russia and China because just a few
months ago Putin visited North Korea and
signed a pact According to which both of
them would provide immediate military
assistance if either faced armed
aggression and not to forget China's
role since Chinese assistance has proven
vital for North Korea and helped them in
their nuclear program so to tackle all
these challenges Japan has plan to
deploy multiple weapons each with a
particular use case the Japanese defense
Ministry wants to build two warships
which will have the radar capacity to
intercept North Korean missile launches
to caner China it plans to acquire 500
longrange us-made Tomahawk cruise
missiles which are capable of striking
deep inside of Chinese territory it also
has focused on improving INF
Warfare this is basically its ability to
quickly move its troops from the ocean
onto the beach on top of that it is also
focusing on building a chain of new
military bases along these Southern
islands with the US's
support Japan's plan is simple by fiscal
year of 2027 Japan aims to enhance its
defense capabilities so that it can
handle Invasion on its own and
effectively counter such threats with
support from their allies in about 10
years it plans to further improve its
defenses to detect and defeat invasions
even earlier and from a greater distance
now it's only a matter of when we will
witness Japan becoming a military
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