How Tokyo is widening regional defence ties to complicate Beijing’s Taiwan calculus

INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY

The risk of a conflict over Taiwan is shaping Japanese defence planning, with Tokyo shoring up security at home and abroad for a potentially prolonged fight. But there are economic, demographic and political constraints on how far its military transformation can go. In the first of a three-part series, Gabriel Dominguez examines how Japan is building a network of partnerships to strengthen its strategic endurance. Japan is rapidly building a web of defence partnerships spanning the Indo-Pacific.