Japan, which has long pursued a policy of peace, was as harmless as a white rabbit after the war, and did not fight any wars, and even played a role similar to waving the flag and shouting, Japan would not send combat troops and only provide part of the logistical support to the Allied forces. However, there is a belligerent complex in the hearts of the Japanese, and the living environment of the land is narrow and densely populated and resources are scarce, giving them a strong sense of crisis, which makes it possible for Japan to expand outward once it has the ability.

Japan's sense of crisis has intensified in this environment, and the rapid rise of China has not only posed a challenge to the United States in the world, but also exerted strong pressure on Japan in East Asia. In the seventies and eighties, Japan's hard-fought industries built up after World War II had an advantage over the United States and Europe, forcing the Americans to come up with something like the Plaza Accord in the hope of restoring the balance of trade.

However, the rise of China's industry, especially in many industries, overlaps with Japan's core industries and fist industries, which has had a huge impact on the Japanese economy. Taking the American family car market as an example, it took a few years for Chinese auto companies to complete the annual sales from not being able to sell one to hundreds of thousands or even millions, while the demand in the American family car market is limited. Japanese automobiles, such as Toyota and Honda, have seen their sales plummet in the U.S. and other markets, resulting in a significant drop in profits. Even Japan's home market has faced the impact of Chinese cars, which makes the Japanese scratch their heads anxiously.

And that's just one example of the economy, and China's influence on Japan goes far beyond that. The most direct and unavoidable problem is the old feud between China and Japan in modern times; when China made a slight improvement on the road to modern state and rejuvenation twice, Japan dealt a fatal blow to China, especially in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which burned half of China with beacon fire, causing the death of tens of millions of soldiers and civilians, and causing incalculable economic losses.

There have also been several inhumane and exterminating massacres and tragedies, which have made the Chinese's hatred for the Japanese unforgettable. Even though China has established diplomatic relations with Japan and said that it wants to turn the page and develop friendly relations between China and Japan, the Japanese are not so at ease, and they always feel that China may one day return to Japan the suffering inflicted by Japan in the past, or even ten times more.

At a time when China does not yet have the national strength and military strength, the Japanese can relax a little, after all, the East China Sea is relatively safe. However, when China's national defense and military capabilities are advancing by leaps and bounds, the Japanese simply cannot be calm. They began to use various methods to try to restore the so-called "strategic balance of power", just like Shinzo Abe's logic in another plane - East Asia will be peaceful only if Japan is stronger than China.

On this plane, China's military strength is enough to make Japan look up, and Japan understands that only when it does its best to engage in an arms race can it keep up with the pace of China's armament development, and China can engage in equipment development in this way, and if Japan follows suit, it will be under major military pressure.

Similar to the other side, the main way for Japan to balance China's armed forces is to continuously strengthen military cooperation with the United States, and the United States is also happy to make Japan rely more on itself, which is also a greater bargaining chip for the United States against Japan.

Soon, Japan also announced a medium- and long-term plan for armament development and force building, claiming to be developing a national defense capability commensurate with Japan's international status, taking precautions against any possible invasion of Japan, and playing a more active role in regional and global security.

Similar to the Korean Federation, Japan's arms development program also emphasizes its own and self-produced capabilities, acquiring advanced technology from the United States and Europe, and combining its own relatively strong equipment and scientific research capabilities to build high-end weapons produced in Japan to cope with possible conflicts.

In addition to the IDF's variant version of the F-2 fighter, almost every branch of the Self-Defense Forces has some more specific plans in Japan's armament development plan. For example, the Type 90 main battle tank developed by Japan, Japan only took a few years, and felt that there was a certain gap with the world's first-echelon main battle tanks such as VT-2, M1, and Leopard 2, and coupled with Japan's poor load-bearing capacity of the Zhouqiao transportation system and the relatively fragmented, river-crisscrossing terrain, Japan hopes to develop a successor model of the Type 90 tank, so that it can better adapt to the situation of Japan's domestic operations.

Because the infantry fighting vehicles developed by China have achieved brilliant results in various battlefields, and their excellent performance and tremendous role are also valued by all countries in the world, many countries, including Japan, are developing their own infantry fighting vehicles, on the one hand, to enhance the strength of their own armies, and on the other hand, they also want to share the Chinese market. Japan is developing the Type 93 infantry fighting vehicle family based on the world's excellent infantry fighting vehicles, such as China's VN-1 and Switzerland's Piranha armored vehicle.

At the same time, the Japanese also applied the concept of the Type 13 mobile tank (actually more similar to an assault gun) to the Type 93 infantry fighting vehicle in advance, arranging a 105mm anti-tank gun for it, which was mainly used for direct fire support and strikes against enemy tanks.

China has the largest tank force in the world, and it is impossible for Japan to say that there is no pressure, so the Japanese have put a lot of effort into the topic of anti-tank.

At the same time, Japan also started the development of its own anti-submarine aircraft P-1 more than 10 years earlier, and the purpose is self-evident, China's submarine force uses the East China Sea and other waters as its own swimming pool, comes and goes freely, and silently constantly crosses the Ryukyu island chain and even some important straits near Japan, which makes Japan quite nervous. The planning and construction of enhanced anti-submarine capabilities has greatly weakened China's submarine threat.

The Kongo-class Aegis destroyers, which began construction in 1990, are also pinned on high hopes by Japan to integrate stronger sea-based anti-missile capabilities to deal with missile attacks from China and North Korea. Originally, Japan planned to purchase four Kongo-class ships, but now Japan is determined to add two more, quickly shorten the construction period, speed up the construction process, and strive to join the fleet of Haizi as soon as possible to enhance its strength. Its first ship, the Kongo, has been officially put into service, and some Japanese military commentators have even called out the name of the most powerful destroyer in Asia.

Although the 052D Aegis destroyer has a displacement of about 8,000 tons, there are a lot of light King Kong classes, and there are only 64 vertical launch units, but its more advanced and information-based combat system is a multiplier of its strength, not to mention that 052D also has a stealth design, and the King Kong class is inferior in this regard. In addition, if it is really a ship-to-ship heads-up, even if it carries a lot of missiles, it will not necessarily be more combative. The number of targets that can be guided at the same time by the King Kong class is not as large as that of 052D.

The development of the Maritime Self-Defense Force has also obviously shifted from a defensive position to a more offensive one, characterized by the fact that the Sea of Japan has begun to build a number of large ships for amphibious operations, the more typical ones are the Osumi-class dock landing ships and the Hyuga-class helicopter carriers (amphibious assault ships), in order to build their own landing combat capabilities and strengthen Japan's defense against the outlying islands.

At this time, the issue of the Diaoyu Islands had not yet been hyped up, and the Japanese hoped to build more amphibious warships on the one hand to enhance mutual support between the islands and territories, and on the other hand, to obtain a certain ability to recapture the Ryukyu Islands after they were captured.

It is worth mentioning that the tonnage of the Hyuga-class amphibious assault shipboard has been enlarged a lot, which also reflects the greater ambition of the Japanese. Its full-load displacement has increased to 27,500 tons, and its subsequent development model, the Izumo class, is about the same size, but it is still more similar to the Hyuga class in terms of specific design, such as the egg-wrenching elevator set on the through runway.

Looking at Japan's plan to expand its armed forces and increase its armaments, like the Korean Federal Army, it is also carried out in a clear and orderly manner, with clear priorities and priorities, and it is all formulated in light of the specific conditions of the country, and it is also more suitable for the situation of the country's armed forces. Although Japan's Self-Defense Forces cannot change their personnel at every turn and truly expand their military scale, they can play a little more tricks in terms of the quality of their equipment.

The arms race in East Asia has become increasingly clear as North Korea and Japan have begun to plan their own arms upgrades and military reforms on a large scale, and China has never given up on its actions to strengthen its own defense capabilities. The DPRK is building equipment compared to Japan, and Japan is building equipment compared to China, and China is starting to build equipment compared to the United States, but now it is becoming more and more step-by-step, and it is engaged in these contents according to its own ideas and rhythm.

It is believed that it will not be long before the military strength of any of the three countries in Northeast Asia, North Korea, Japan, and the Far East, is considered to be first-class in Europe, not to mention that in terms of China's size and strength, it is almost equal to the sum of Europe. The military confrontation in Northeast Asia has also slowly surfaced, and it will inevitably become clearer as the contradictions between China and the United States deepen.

Of the four countries, however, China, the Far East, and North Korea are in the same trench, while Japan appears to be relatively alone, and only the United States, which is extraterritorial, can rely on. Therefore, Japan pays great attention to attracting allies on a larger scale and supporting itself. For example, Australia in Oceania and India in the South Asian subcontinent are all targets that Japan needs to woo, and with the support of these countries, Japan will have more courage to compete with China.

It is only when the Japanese government is nervously focused on China and the Korean Federation that they ignore the fact that a rather terrible force is growing and growing in their own country, and that this force, which has not been effectively contained, will eventually make the Japanese government pay the price of carelessness, and I am afraid that this price will also be painful.