By Meng Mingming
According to Japanese media reports on June 27, multiple informed sources revealed that the Japanese government has begun studying the full-scale development and introduction of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) equipped with anti-ship strike capabilities as part of efforts to strengthen Japan's defense posture in the Pacific.
Building a counter-network in the Western Pacific
From a geopolitical perspective, Japan's planned introductionof UUVs and other equipment reflects its intention to establish what it considers a greater depth of persistent defense on the Pacific side. As the Chinese navy continues to enhance its blue water capabilities, Japan believes it needs to strengthen comprehensive surveillance of, and impose greater constraints on, China's far-sea power projection across a much broader area. By planning to deploy UUVs and related systems primarily on the Pacific side, Japan aims to build a wider underwater surveillance and strike network in key maritime areas, including the Philippine Sea and the waters surrounding the Ogasawara Islands. Through such a network, Japan hopes to constrain and compress the operational space of the Chinese navy in the Western Pacific and gain additional leverage in its maritime confrontation with China.
Accelerating military transformation and building an offensive manned-unmanned teaming system
From the perspective of military transformation, Japan is accelerating the development of an offensive combat system that integrates manned and unmanned platforms. Under Japan's concept, UUVs would not only conduct reconnaissance missions but also carry weapons, while operating in close coordination with surface combatants and conventional submarines through an integrated network. With their relatively low cost and reduced risk to personnel, unmanned systems are well-suited for attrition warfare in high-intensity conflicts. This indicates that Japan's defense policy is moving more rapidly toward acquiring substantive counterstrike capabilities. It also reflects Tokyo's strategic intent not only to wage war, but also to sustain prolonged military operations.
Seeking to seize the new technological commanding heights and strengthen US-Japan strategic coordination
From the perspective of future warfighting preparation, Japan seeks to use this initiative to gain a competitive edge in next-generation military technologies. The Ukraine crisis and the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran have highlighted the growing role of unmanned systems in modern warfare. By developing and introducing UUVs and other unmanned systems, Japan hopes to rapidly narrow the technological gap with China and the US and enhance the capabilities of its armed forces. Japan also hopes to demonstrate its strategic value to the US, thereby securing closer strategic coordination with Washington in the military domain.
Using technology to offset demographic constraints and advance a neo-militarism agenda
Finally, from the perspective of Japan's domestic political considerations, the country is facing a rapidly aging population, persistent recruitment shortages in the Self-Defense Forces, and strong public sensitivity to military casualties. By vigorously developing unmanned systems, Japan seeks, on one hand, to offset its demographic disadvantages through technological superiority and sustain the size of its combat forces. On the other hand, it also aims to reduce public sensitivity to military casualties and thereby advance the construction of a neo-militarist system more quickly and with less domestic resistance.
Heightening regional security tensions
Although Japan portrays these initiatives as defensive in nature, they will only further aggravate the regional security environment. They will not only significantly intensify strategic mistrust between China and Japan, but also introduce new destabilizing factors into the security landscape of East Asia. Such actions, which seriously undermine the spirit of Japan's pacifist Constitution and cater to bloc confrontation, will neither achieve Japan's professed defensive objectives nor enhance regional security. Instead, they will further constrain the strategic space of relevant countries, deepen the region's security dilemma, and make Japan itself the greatest source of risk to peace and stability in East Asia.
(The author is an assistant research fellow of the Division of Political Studies at the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)