Japan Defense Off the Record

The U.S. stabbed us in the back [...]. The US we knew and loved is gone. Even if things improve, they won't go back to what they were. [...]

Military-to-military relations are good. It is the politicians who are causing problems.

Japan needs to be able to take care of itself.

Japan must be prepared for a protracted war that could last for years, such as the war in Ukraine.

Robots may be needed to make up for the shortfall in Self-Defense Force recruits.

- Senior Japanese politician, speaking off the record earlier this year

Japan Preliminary Defense Document

On September 17, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported on a preliminary draft of a new Defense Buildup Program document. This is one of the three national-security documents that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her government plan to revise by the end of this year.

The draft proposes the acquisition of more than 50,000 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones), of which 10,000 would be capable of long-distance attacks, 1,300 would be for maritime defense, and 7,500 would conduct surveillance. Including small drones of the type used in Ukraine, the figure 80,000 has also been mentioned.

According to the report, Japan would also develop the capability to mass produce long-range (including hypersonic) missiles, increase its fleet of spy satellites to about 100, and develop a new air defense network including missiles, autocannons, and rail guns. Enough ammunition, missiles, and fuel would be stockpiled to enable the ground, maritime, and air (including space) self-defense forces to fight for a year.

All this would require an increase in defense spending from the current 2% of GDP to 3.5% or more. How this might be paid for is unclear and likely to trigger intense debate, but the direction is most probably up, not sideways or down.

Looked at overall, Japan's defense buildup includes:

... in short, everything required to make Japan a formidable military power capable of defending itself if, in a worst-case scenario, it can no longer rely on the US.

NTT Data & Palo Alto Networks

NTT Data, the largest IT services and consulting company in Japan; and Palo Alto Networks, the American cybersecurity company, have announced a strategic alliance intended to help clients design and maintain secure AI networks and guard against the rising level of threat posed by the rampant development of artificial intelligence.

According to Palo Alto Networks:

The latest frontier AI models are changing cyber risk faster than traditional defenses can adapt [...] new models can find and exploit exposures that have gone undetected for years [...] the threat landscape has hit an inflection point, with work that once took deep expertise, time and manual effort happening in seconds at machine scale [...] frontier AI models are shrinking the time from vulnerability discovery to exploitation from months to minutes. [...] The most immediate risks created by sophisticated, automated attacks at scale.

The alliance, which is Palo Alto Networks' first with a global system integrator, builds on the two companies' previous collaboration in cloud network security and threat response. It combines Palo Alto Networks' cybersecurity platforms with NTT Data's consulting and engineering services.

The alliance gives NTT Data early access to the newest features of Palo Alto Networks' threat intelligence platform. Leveraging joint engineering, co-innovation, and coordinated global deployment, it should raise clients' ability to assess cyber risk and continuously optimize their AI network security.

Initial solutions delivered by the alliance will address cybersecurity challenges in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing industries, and the public sector.

NTT Data is a consolidated subsidiary of NTT, Japan's national telecom technology and service company. The alliance with Palo Alto Networks is, therefore, not simply a private-sector initiative.