Tomahawks show Tokyo willing to be hatchet man: China Daily editorial

Japan signed a contract with the United States on Thursday to buy up to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles from 2025 to 2027, allegedly seeking to acquire "the capability of striking an adversary's territory" with China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in mind.

That's undoubtedly a dangerous move deserving of the full alert of the region and beyond. For the first time since its unconditional surrender in the World War II, Japan will have acquired long-range precision strike capacity, something that it has long desired.

Tokyo was initially planning on obtaining the latest Tomahawk Block-V missiles in fiscal 2026 and 2027 and deploying them on its Maritime Self-Defense Force Aegis destroyers. But it has recently decided to start the purchase a year earlier by switching to the procurement of up to 200 of the previous version, the older Block-IV model. According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the change was made "in response to an increasingly severe security environment".

That's the cliche Japan uses whenever it purchases or produces advanced weapons. Japan is now the third-biggest military spender in the world, with plans to continuously increase its outlay every year.

The "security threats" that Tokyo keeps hyping up to justify its moves are only an excuse for it to push ahead with Japan's militarization despite its "pacifist" Constitution and the opposition of the Japanese public.

The Tomahawks have a range of about 1,600 kilometers. That the missiles can be launched from the Aegis destroyers, with the intelligence support of the United States under their security treaty, will give Japan great advantages over its neighbors in carrying out surgical strikes from afar. Japan now has eight Aegis destroyers, and the number is set to rise to 12 by the end of the decade according to its defense plan.

Given the mobility of the missiles' launch base, it will by no means be only China and the DPRK that will be put within the range of Japanese missiles as they will be able to strike the inland areas of any country around the world, making Japan a new tool of the US' military mindset.

No wonder US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who attended the signing of the purchase agreement in Tokyo on Thursday, spoke highly of the move.

The US is eager to turn Japan into a regional hatchet man that can do much of the dirty work in the Asia-Pacific so that Washington can divert more power and attention to the conflicts it is stoking in the Middle East and Ukraine.

That the jump-the-gun deal was inked in a hurry makes it viable speculation that it was Washington that urged Japan to accept the old generation models first as it cannot transfer more forces to the region as Tokyo has urged.

By saying "there is a new Japan emerging, a more competent Japan", Emanuel has made it clear what role the US has in mind for Japan, which will only be at the cost of regional peace and stability.