Kishida Prioritizes Arms Buildup, Reversing Low Birthrate

TOKYO (AP) Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday that Japan faces the severest security environment in the region since the end of World War II and pledged to push a military buildup under a newly adopted security strategy over the next five years and beyond as well as tackle rapidly declining births so the country can sustain national strength.

Kishidas government in December adopted key security and defense reforms, including a counterstrike capability that makes a break from the countrys exclusively self-defense-only postwar principle. Japan says the current deployment of missile interceptors is insufficient to defend it from rapid weapons advancement in China and North Korea.

In his policy speech opening this years parliamentary session, Kishida said active diplomacy should be prioritized, but it requires "defense power to back it up. He said Japan's new security strategy is based on a realistic simulation as we face the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II and a question if we can protect the peoples lives in an emergency.