The worry has long been that any attack on Taiwan, which counts the US as an ally, could result in a direct military conflict between Washington and Beijing, then widen to include other US allies in the region such as Japan.<\/p>\n
Takaichi’s remarks to parliament plunged ties with China to their lowest level in years and Beijing has been piling on the pressure in a wide range of ways – sending warships, throttling rare earth exports, curbing Chinese tourism, cancelling concerts and even reclaiming its pandas.<\/p>\n
Japanese defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi announced the timeline for the missiles on Tuesday, a day after China imposed export curbs on 20 Japanese companies and entities, citing national security concerns.<\/p>\n
Koizumi said the Yonaguni unit will be equipped with medium-range surface-to-air missiles able to intercept incoming aircraft and missiles.<\/p>\n
With a range of about 50km and 360-degree capability, the Japanese-made missile system can track up to 100 targets simultaneously and engage up to 12 at once.<\/p>\n
China has yet to react to Koizumi’s announcement. But when Koizumi visited Yonaguni in November, Beijing said Japan was moving to “create regional tension and provoke military confrontation”.<\/p>\n
Within days, China flew drones near the island to express its anger, prompting Japan to scramble aircraft jets in response.<\/p>\n
The latest developments come after Takaichi secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections earlier this month. That victory gave Takaichi political space to double down on boosting Japan’s defence capabilities.<\/p>\n
This makes the announcement on Yonaguni island more than just a military adjustment – it looks like the opening chapter for a more assertive Tokyo. And as Takaichi bolsters the country’s military and defence budget, such assertiveness seems unlikely to end here.<\/p>\n
The Yonaguni announcement also shows where Japan sees its front line – and how far it is prepared to go to defend it.<\/p>\n
Over the past decade, Japan has transformed sleepy Yonaguni into a military outpost, which currently handles coastal surveillance and is staffed by some 160 members of Japan’s self-defence force. <\/p>\n
An electronic warfare unit capable of disrupting enemy communications and radar will be set up there in fiscal year 2026, which runs from April to March next year. <\/p>\n
The timing for the deployment of the missile unit “may change depending on the progress of future facility improvements, but the current plan is for fiscal year 2030”, Koizumi said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The worry has long been that any attack on Taiwan, which counts the US as an ally, could…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-444441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}