The Sanae Takaichi cabinet announced plans to position the defence industry as a pillar of its growth strategy and revise the National Security Strategy at the end of the year. As it moves quickly to prepare for “new ways of warfare” as modern total war, the cabinet is focusing on the use of unmanned weapons such as drones and AI.
Against a backdrop of escalating hybrid attacks worldwide, the Japanese government has positioned strengthening the defence industry as a pillar of its industrial strategy and indicated plans to review the National Security Strategy by the end of the year. It is reportedly seeking to build a framework capable of responding to modern total war while maintaining the traditional framework of Japan as a peace state. The cabinet has stressed its policy of strengthening the necessary preparations for implementing new ways of warfare, on the premise of maintaining a free and open international order based on the rule of law.
The report explains how combat methods combining drones and artificial intelligence are having a major impact on battlefield tactics, citing the war in Ukraine as an example. Drone-based surveillance and incursions, data integration and analysis, and AI-assisted decision-making have become central to operations, and it is pointed out that conflicts are becoming more difficult to resolve through conventional large-scale ground warfare alone. The report also presents experts’ view that Ukraine continues to respond swiftly and adapt its tactics flexibly by making full use of AI for training and AI for inference.