Japan's Minister of Defense, Shinjiro Koizumi, made a report on the 2026 edition of the “Defense White Paper” at the cabinet meeting on the morning of the 4th. This white paper continues to portray Japan's “peripheral security threats,” with the intention of paving the way for the Takaichi Sanae government to revise the “Three Security Documents” and expand military weapons before the end of this year. The new white paper continues the statement from the 2025 edition, saying that the international community has faced the greatest test since the post-war period and has entered a “new era of crisis.” The white paper continues to position China as Japan's “greatest strategic challenge ever before,” talking about China's conventional military activities and proper national defense construction, deliberately hyping up, and wantonly misrepresenting the actions necessary for the Chinese military to maintain the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. This white paper also describes the trend of the Takaichi government's military expansion policy. In March of this year, Japan officially deployed the Type 25 land-based anti-ship missile in Kumamoto Prefecture. It has a range of about 1,000 kilometers, far exceeds Japanese territory, and has obvious offensive properties. This is also the first time that Japan has deployed a long-range missile with “the ability to attack an enemy base.” The white paper points out that Japan will also further seek “attack capabilities against enemy bases,” including developing airborne and sea-launched versions of the Type 25 anti-ship missile, advancing the development of hypersonic missiles, and introducing foreign-made “missiles outside defense zones.”

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