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Japan's gradual normalisation: Better Godzilla than Bambi
As threats rise in its neighbourhood, even ‘dovish’ PM Kishida is calling for pre-emptive strike capabilities
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Earlier this month, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called for a defence review amid growing threats.
PHOTO: REUTERS
William Choong
In December 2014, I was part of a delegation of South-east Asian scholars and think-tank members who were invited to Japan to study the country’s foreign and defence posture.
We were ferried to Naha, the capital of Okinawa, an island 1,600km from Tokyo. There, we got a palpable sense of the threat the Japanese felt about the country’s territorial disputes with China, Russia and South Korea.
