Page 3 - DSEi JAPAN 2023 | DAILY NEWS

JAPAN MUST IMPROVE

OPERATIONAL READINESS:

Masanori Nishi,

Former Administrative

Vice Minister of Defence

Japan must improve its operational read- spending. “For many years, since the end be an important occasion for us, not only
iness, which is currently around 50per of the Second World War, we have neigh- for developing our own technological
cent, according to Masanori Nishi, Former boured three strongly armed countries, capabilities but also for understanding the
Administrative Vice Minister of Defence. Russia - formally the Soviet Union - China international arms market.”
and North Korea… In these 80 years, it has
“It is necessary to bring it back been difficult to develop relations with The Japanese defence industry is happy
to at least 60 per cent - espe- these countries. Japan is increasingly with the current budget increase but may
lack the capacity to meet the sudden
cially through the sustainability aware of how difficult and dangerous our increase in demand, said Nishi. “The
region of the world has become.”
of our stockpile,” Nishi said in a capacity of the Japanese defence indus-
recent discussion with Air Vice Nishi elaborated on the threat from China. try is about 70 to 80per cent. If the country
is going to spend more money than the
Marshal (Retd) Gary Waterfall, “When you compare China’s 1996 defence capacity levels can handle, the industry will
Senior Military Advisor, DSEI budget to today, you will find that it is 30 need to build additional production lines
times more. Their focus is primarily on sur-
at a pre-show event “It must face ships capability, particularly aircraft and the additional costs will be reflected in
also be sufficient to carry out carriers – in fact, they are aiming to finish the price of systems. The question is - how
long will the government keep spending
modern warfare. These two their third aircraft carrier in the very near this much in defence, and do we have
parts are key to our defensive future. We must pay attention that what enough time to cover all costs of building
China is going to do against Taiwan. if
requirements and certainly Taiwan is in danger, that is going to disturb new production lines? Those are answers
that the Japanese Ministry of Defence will
where our budgetary focus all lines of communications from Japan to have to provide to the Japanese industry.”
must be. Of course, there are the south. China is now such a great power
several newly emerging issues that we must ask “how we can deter it?”. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)
That’s a very difficult question to answer.
like the cyber security and between Japan, Australia, India and the
United States is an interesting dialogue to
space.” Nishi believes that while Japan’s indige- monitor, said Nishi.
nous defence industry will benefit from the
DSEI Japan 2023 gives Japan an ideal increased military spending, there are chal- “China now threatens many countries with
platform to present what the government lenges that need to be overcome. Japanese its size in terms of population, economy
and industry have been working on, and to weapon systems are not designed for and military capabilities,” said Nishi. “India
show what the country has learned from export but are for use by the country’s has a great reason to cooperate with US,
forces. This reduces the chance for arms Japan, and Australia, in order to ensure a
global conflicts such as Russia in Ukraine transfers, he said.
and Chinese aggression against Taiwan, stable security environment in East Asia.
India’s relations with Russia creates a lot
Nishi said. “Changes to these (weapon) systems of things to discuss this year. How are we
would make them very expensive,” he going to define quad, for what purpose?
Nishi also explained why the Japanese said. “This issue will be coming up in the It is a serious topic, and we need time to
MoD decided to rewrite its strategic papers Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) find an answer that will satisfy all the four
and dramatically increase its military collaboration with the UK and Italy. It will countries.”

Editorial Director Arun Sivasankaran Art Director
Vittorio Rossi Prudente arun.sivasankaran@gbp.com.sg Sudheesh Kularmunda
PUBLISHED BY vittorio.prudente@gbp.com.sg Atul Chandra sudheesh.kularmunda@gbp.com.sg
atul.chandra@gbp.com.sg
Editorial Team Sales Director
Jay Menon Gordon Arthur Akshay Satyamurthy
jay.menon@gbp.com.sg anodrog@hotmail.com akshay.satyamurthy@gbp.com.sg

DSEi JAPAN 2023 MARCH-15-2023 3