Security policy review taking shape | Japan Daily Briefing
Looking ahead to Takaichi's plans for updating national security documents
Thank you for reading Observing Japan. This is a new feature for paid subscribers, Japan Daily Briefing, that will replace This Week in Japanese Politics. My goal will be to publish this briefing every weekday and once over the weekend.
If you are looking for timely, forward-looking analysis of the stories in Japans’s politics and policymaking that move markets, I have launched a service through my business, Japan Foresight LLC. For 2026, I am preparing a new pricing tier for public institutions. For more information about Japan Foresight’s services or for information on how to sign up for a trial or schedule a briefing, please visit our website or reach out to me.
My firm Japan Foresight published a Japan Risks 2026 report and I am offering it to Observing Japan readers for a discount. Paid subscribers can click here for information on how to purchase. Free subscribers can find information here.
Happy New Year! This marks the resumption of the Japan Daily Briefing. In case you missed it, I published an article on Takaichi’s 2026 agenda for Nikkei Asia, “Takaichi’s ‘Japan First’ is a retreat from Abe’s vision of openness.”
A relatively light news day but there are signs of the Takaichi government’s preparations for a national security policy review, conservatives are calling for Tamaki Yūichirō to put country before party and join the coalition, and Tokyo calls out China for its latest East China Sea gas development activities.
Security policy review ramping up
With the Takaichi government planning to revise the three national security documents – the national security strategy, the national defense strategy, and the medium-term defense program – this year, the government will begin its internal deliberations this spring with the establishment of an advisory council to draw up recommendations. In this, the Takaichi government will follow the procedures used by the Kishida government for its 2022 revisions. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has already begun its own deliberations and will submit its recommendations to the government in April, which will influence the government advisory council’s work.
The advisory council will be considering, among other questions, whether to revise the three non-nuclear principles, whether to pursue the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, and the overall level of defense spending to aim for now that Japan has reached the 2% of GDP target included in the 2022 documents.
