By Xi Jing
Japan has accelerated the development of "specified use airports," allocating a new round of special budgets to initiate the militarized upgrading of 10 civilian airports. This move reflects Japan's habitual practice of using civilian facilities to conceal military purposes and hollowing out its "exclusively defense-oriented" policy. It will negatively impact the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region, and the spillover of war risks warrants high vigilance.
The construction of "specified use airports" is a plan proposed in Japan's National Security Strategy, aiming to upgrade civilian airports to ensure they can be rapidly converted into forward bases for air operations during wartime. The upgrades include extending and reinforcing runways, designating exclusive isolated military parking aprons, adding fuel storage depots and modular ammunition storage areas, and establishing encrypted military communication links.
In April 2024, Japan launched the construction of the first batch of "specified use airports," adding five airports—Naha, Kita-Kyushu, Nagasaki, Fukue, and Miyazaki—to the list. In August of the same year, Japan added three airports—Kagoshima, Kumamoto, and Tokunoshima. These airports are mainly concentrated in southwestern Japan, including Kyushu and Okinawa. In 2025, Japan added six airports, including Hakodate, Oita, and Yamaguchi Ube, in two batches, beginning to expand the network toward northeastern Japan. Currently, Japan has completed partial upgrades at airports such as Naha and Nagasaki, and established a coordination mechanism for military aircraft use, giving these airports an initial capability to support military deployments. Public available information shows that the upgraded airports have handled more than 11,000 military aircraft takeoffs and landings.
The current round of "specified use airports" construction involves 10 airports, including New Chitose, Wakkanai, Kushiro, Asahikawa, Nakashibetsu, Memanbetsu, Chubu Centrair International, Takamatsu, Matsuyama, and Kochi. The special upgrade budget reaches 225 billion yen, marking a significant increase from previous batches.
In terms of site selection, Japan's layout logic for "specified use airports" has shifted from "forward hubs" to "nationwide coverage," intending to build a distributed aviation support system that interconnects the north, central, and southwest regions. To date, Japan has incorporated 24 civilian airports into its military deployment scope, while also selecting 33 civilian ports as backup facilities for maritime combat forces.
Japan's decentralized development of "specified use airports" draws on the US military's "Agile Combat Employment" (ACE) concept, intending to compensate for the shortage of domestic military airports and insufficient strategic depth. By expanding backup takeoff and landing sites, it reduces the reliance of aerial combat forces on a few fixed military bases. In wartime, air forces can quickly relocate to civilian airports, enhancing battlefield survivability and sustained combat capabilities.
Japan's Defense Buildup Program indicates that the militarized upgrading of civilian airports directly serves the capability-building goals of its new defense planning. For distributed air defense, a large number of backup takeoff and landing sites allow fighter jets and air defense forces to be dispersed, mitigating the risk of concentrated strikes. For long-range precision strikes, upgraded airports can not only ensure the rapid relocation and temporary stationing of strike platforms but also support the mobile deployment of long-range missile-related equipment, providing backing for the execution of long-range precision firepower strikes.
The upgrade standards for relevant facilities are fully aligned with US military technical specifications, enabling the deployment of F-35 series fighter jets, tanker aircraft, and large unmanned combat platforms. It is evident that the construction of "specified use airports" will be deeply embedded in the joint operational system of the US-Japan alliance. In the future, Japan may grant the US military access to these airports, in support of US force deployments in the Asia-Pacific, turning them into forward hubs for US military operations in the Western Pacific.
Japan's continuous advancement of the militarization of civilian airports is essentially an attempt to breakthrough the constraints imposed by its post-war pacifist constitution and gradually loosen restrictions on and expand its military capabilities. Japan deliberately blurs the boundary between civilian and military facilities, using civilian infrastructure upgrades as a legal cloak. By designating "specified use airports" and formulating priority requisition rules during wartime, it bypasses constitutional restrictions on building new military bases and expanding offensive military forces.
This development model of using civilian cover for military purposes is an important means for Japan to covertly expand its military and accumulate war potential. Promoted under the guise of public infrastructure development, the upgrading of civilian airports can be carried out in a highly concealed and sustained manner. Relevant measures severely disrupt the military balance in the Asia-Pacific region and stir up the regional security situation. Furthermore, once civilian facilities assume military functions, they may lose their protection as civilian objects and become military objectives in wartime. This move places the public at risk of war and elevates the likelihood of Japan being dragged into conflicts.