Japan has successfully launched a rocket on Thursday, January 26, 2023, carrying a government intelligence-gathering satellite on a mission to monitor movements at military sites in North Korea and improve natural disaster response.
The H2A rocket, launched by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., successfully lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, carrying the IGS-Radar 7 reconnaissance satellite as part of Tokyo’s effort to build up its military capability, citing growing threats in the East Asia.
The satellite later successfully entered its planned orbit, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., disclosed.
The Intelligence Gathering Satellite (IGS) can capture images on the ground twenty-four hours a day and even in severe weather conditions.
Japan launched the Intelligence Gathering Satellite program after a North Korean missile flyover of Japan in 1988 and aims to set up a network of ten satellites to detect and provide early warning for possible missile launches.
The satellites can be also used for disaster monitoring and response.
“The government will maximize the use of IGS-Radar 7 and other reconnaissance satellites to do the utmost for Japan’s national security and crisis management,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida disclosed in a statement as he lauded the successful launch.
Kishida’s government in December adopted a new national security strategy, including possessing long-range cruise missiles as a “counterstrike” capability that breaks from the country’s exclusively self-defense-only postwar principle, citing rapid weapons advancement in China and North Korea.
Possession of the strike-back capability is “indispensable” as deterrence to discourage enemy attacks, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had informed a news conference, calling it “a major change to Japan’s postwar security policy.”
“When threats become reality, can the Self-Defense Force fully protect our country? Frankly speaking, the current (SDF capability) is insufficient.”
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
Under the strategy, Japan’s defense spending through to 2027 will increase to about 2% of Japan’s Gross Domestic Product(GDP) to total some 43 trillion yen ($320 billion), 1.6-times that of the current five-year total.
Ken Jimbo, a defense expert at Keio University, opined, “Taiwan emergency and Japan emergency are inseparable,” noting that Japan’s westernmost island of Yonaguni is only 110 kilometers (70 miles) away from Taiwan.
New Strategy Sets Forth Vision For Strong Community Of Partners
U.S. National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, in a statement announced that Japan’s new strategy “sets forth the vision of Prime Minister Kishida and the Japanese people for a broad and strong community of partners and allies in the region.”
“Japan’s goal to significantly increase defense investments will also strengthen and modernize the U.S.-Japan alliance.”
U.S. National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan
Meanwhile, Christopher Johnstone, a senior advisor and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, disclosed that Japan claims its exclusive self-defense policy is unchanged, but “long-range cruise missiles represent a threshold capability that will fundamentally change Japan’s approach to deterrence.”
“An effective Japanese counterstrike capability would set the stage for a far deeper level of command-and-control integration with the United States than exists today.”
Christopher Johnstone
Possible counterstrikes that aim to preempt enemy attacks would require significant advancement in intelligence gathering and cybersecurity capability, as well as significant assistance from Japan’s ally, the United States, experts say.
Japan’s new defense strategy puts an end to the 1956 government policy that shelved counterstrike capability and only recognized the idea as a constitutional last-ditch defense.
The Mitsubishi Heavy-operated, liquid-fuel H2A rocket has recorded forty consecutive successes since a failure in 2003.
Mitsubishi Heavy and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are co-developing their new flagship H3 rocket as the successor to the H2A, which is set to retire in 2024.
The first launch of H3 is set for February.
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