Japan's stance and rhetoric have changed a lot in the year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Already officially at the government level, Japan calls on Russia to return its northern territories to it.
Last December, there was a change and revision of the national security strategy and defense plans, in fact, for the first time since the Second World War, radically changed the position of Japan.
Serhiy Korsunsky, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Japan, spoke about this in an interview with TSN.ua.
“First of all, the military budget is increasing very sharply, and in a few years Japan will take third place in the world in terms of defense spending. Secondly, it will be re-equipped with over-modern missiles, possibly aircraft. self-defense. Thirdly, Japan announced that it reserves the possibility of a preemptive strike. This has never happened,” Sergei Korsunsky said.
He also added that while we are not talking about the abolition of the peaceful Constitution, the supply of weapons to other countries. Nevertheless, it is felt that in Japan they are very concerned about what is happening.
“During the past year, 89 missile launches conducted exams in North Korea. Everyone understands that this is at the suggestion of Russia. All this led to the fact that Japan was forced to say that it was time to reconsider its exclusively peaceful position towards Russia, because no matter how much you say the word “peace”, peace will not come,” the ambassador emphasized.
Recall that the Japanese government, on the anniversary of the Russian invasion, expanded the lists of sanctions and introduced new export-import restrictions.
