you find major economies having an interest in him, in chaos, specifically and in africa, basically to invite the facts of what is happening elsewhere in france's careo key was recently connected to the greed through a rural electrification program, sat on them, one guy, now we have light we also have fewer cases of test at night, but there are still people in darkness. we need to light up the entire village. in most parts, people are now enjoying the benefits of renewable energy. many kenyans are connected to the national green, while others have installed the wireless system. the government says it wants to ensure every home has electricity in the next 10 years. the idea is and its school is not just to live top the country, but the whole continent. catherine saw all jazeera, all carrier in the rift valley. ah,

this is al jazeera and these are the top stories this our north korea has fired its longest range massage. give the intermediate range ballistic missile, flew for 4000 kilometers before falling into the pacific ocean. it's the 1st to fly over japan since 2017 prompting condemnations and severe warnings from its neighbors. and the us. the south korea has been quick to react. it's mobilized for 5 digits to hold military drills and dropped a peer of guided bombs on a target of its with coast for american kids have also taken pass in the exercise from mcbride has been following developments from sol. we've seen a very strong reaction as you would expect from a japan food casita, the prime minister, calling as a reckless act at the country's chief cabinet secretary saying that this threatened regional piece and also the international community. we've also had

a strong response from sol here. and so kel, the south korean president saying that there would be a resolute response from the countries military and also from south careers, allies. but you have to say that it's difficult to see just what other measures the international community and the allies in this part of the world can put in place to try to get tests at north korea to change its ways. the upper house of russia's parliament has approved the claim to annexation of full regions in ukraine. the new law is being pushed through despite the wind and width and allies insisting it's illegal. and now goes to president vladimir putin for final ratification, ukrainian forces have achieved a significant breakthrough in the south, pushed through russian defenses and advanced along that in the pro river. there have been 2 bank hold up some live in on as frustrated customers trying to access

their savings rides. own branches by clients have taken place across the country. during the last month they been on facing financial crisis and banks, heaven pose strict limits on withdrawals. the 2022 nobel prize for physics has been announced in stock home. it's been jointly awarded to 3 people. elaine aspect, john s classa and anton zealander for the pioneering work and quantum information science about us. how the headlines and news continues here on al jazeera, the inside story up next. ah, what is the japanese prime minister's military strategy? julio casita says that his government will create

a new national security strategy at his pledged more spending on defense capabilities. but what's his intention and when it work, this is inside story. ah, ah, hello, welcome to the program. i'm adrian forget. japan is scrambling to boost its military strength to counter what took care sees as rising threats from china in his national address on monday, prime minister for mucous shita emphasized his goal to bolster the military over the next 5 years. but with the weekend, he struggling to find the finances to do it. his predecessor shins obey focused heavily on shoring up reserves, but shita has low approval ratings of needs to regain the trust of the public to fill his government key policies. unique lawyer,

you look in an integrated and strong manner, we will consider the content of our defense capabilities, which will be necessary for the drastic functioning of our defense capabilities within 5 years. as well as grasp the fact that the budget and secure financial resources for that purpose, we will draw conclusions during the budgeting process. by the end of this year, we will formulate a new national security strategy, which we have been discussing. along with china, the threat from nearby north korea remains a talk concerns japan. for the 1st time pyongyang launched 4 rockets in one week. something to pounds vice defense minister says is unacceptable. doesn't say we're producing pick up since the beginning of this year. north korea has repeatedly launched missiles with unprecedented frequency and new ways, including provocation. escalating launches, such as launching ballistic missiles for tom's in quick succession in the past week alone, north korea, as actions threatened the peace and safety, not only for japan,

but also the region. and the international community and not absolutely impermissible. what was the goal of military expansion is both expensive and controversial. the defense ministry requested more than $43000000000.00 for the 2023 fiscal year. that's the highest budget request in history, and more than one percent of the countries g d p. the plan also includes introducing preemptive strike capabilities and plans to further promote nuclear energy critic say this could violate the countries pacifist constitution and raises safety concerns stemming from the 2011 fukushima nuclear disaster. japan doesn't plan on growing, it's military alone. she said he hopes to maintain dialogue with china while working with us and other allies to promote indo pacific security. ah, why there is much to discuss with our guests for today's program. let's bring them

in from she's ok. so general target, she's a professor at the university of she's worker in tokyo. we've got craig, mark a professor at the faculty of international studies, a carrot, so womens university gentleman, welcome to the program. sir. let's start with you. just how controversial are japan's military spending plans for the next year? okay, we've heard a lot about this. $43000000000.00 figure the highest ever just over one percent of g d p. but. but hang on previous administrations have tended to keep defense spending around the one percent g d p. mark. what's, what's so remarkable about this budget? well, you know, one percent had been what one would call the defense line for many people acceptance line. and this was got to be aligned that shouldn't be crossed out. but, you know, with this very strong regression that we're getting from china, ah, and also from north korea is reporting, which in my opinion is richie china,

as there were increased big data is actually, you know, china and seeing what's happening in europe as well. i think it's very, very clear on, along with the fact that during the days of trump, ah, you know, there's been a lot of, i should say, awareness about, you know, increasing as defense spending. so i wouldn't be surprised if it goes well easily beyond one percent are certainly targeting the 2 percent line, which is the request of the previous present by the united states. craig, do you agree with that? will japan's defense spending increase to around 2 percent of g d. p in the coming is why does the prime minister and his party think it's so important for them to do so? well, as has been said, very much aware of the potential instability in the region with the rising power of china. the potential threat from north korea. and of course,

the divisions with russia since the cry war. and there's been discussions within the liberal democratic party within the various policy committees of raising it to 2 percent, possibly by the end of the decade. so this incremental increase in defense spending, which has been happening every year since the administration returned to power in 2012, that trained to just is going to keep on accelerating. and if japan does reach to percent of gdp, that'll make it the 3rd largest military spend in the world after the us in china. currently it's rated about spinning around $50000000000.00 us per year. so that will be a radical departure. and also, as mentioned in the intro, the capabilities of the defense forces ago to change the counter strike

capability, extending the range of missiles. so they could potentially be used to as the defense forces, side deter, attacks on japan of over a 1000 kilometer ranges. the re restructured the self defense forces to have more deployments in the south. in these islands of south of ok now of which and confronts the scene. cock islands claimed by china as the di wilds, and increasing a whole range of capabilities in cyber warfare by slight systems. all these very radical changes which i got to come about through the rest of this, said jerry, the picking up from what cray was saying that it is perhaps understandable that japan would need a stronger terence. but why would it need counter strike capabilities? and at is that not at odds with the countries pacifist constitution more,

the meaning of the pacifist constitution has been altered as you know. and now we are at a point where we can and will defend, for example, our allied forces. so that has been rectified. and also i think many people are starting to realize that, you know, by keeping the 9th amendment in which is our peace keeping bible. ah, that doesn't mean that you know, all foreigners. ringback forces will be sting out. on the contrary, ah, it's totally the other way around is you saw very recently in action by north korea . the more you left leave them alone, you know, the more they want to be appearing on the stage. now they've been throwing over 28 missiles, i think last year, end of this year, already a very record breaking number basically to attract attention and also having china

as their backbone. they do not have to worry about sanctions because we talk about sanctions, north korea, but you know, the fact of the matter is 90 percent of the trade is done with china. so, you know, the sanction by other countries aren't really going to hurt in an or korea and having this big world again, many between united states and china and japan clearly siding with the united states, especially during the days of you know, mr. army ah, it's very, very clear that in law, north koreans are virtually, you know, able to be the bad boy of the region affects the backup of china. so, you know, these issues are starting to gradually thinking to many of the japanese. and i think for that reason, and they'll be very clear back up that said course that is under the assumption that economic situation will be stable. and that is a big question yet, which we're going to come on to the, the economic situation in it. but a little while since you're the 1st, craig of japan,

as new defense minister said on monday, the international community is quote, entering a new era of crisis. and that japan needed to be adequately ready to counter this. i mean, what, what did he mean? who or what does japan see as the main threats to its security right now? well, as been mentioned, north korea is obviously a direct threat would it's miss all testing. and the even room is going around in the south terrain media. the maybe they might conduct an underground nuclear test and the next couple of weeks, and that would definitely focus the attention on the potential threat of north korea. but of course, china is the main hedge, a monic challenger. and of course, just very recently in august we had the taiwan straits crisis where the response to the visit by how speaking nancy pelosi, the chinese military was the largest scale military exercises around the world of

taiwan. and it is a space in china itself, tested listing me saw some of which landed in the economic exclusion, joan of japan, neither capital islands. so that is the biggest long term threat which japan is considering as well as russia in the white of the ukraine was the prime minister. kesha has strongly condemned russians, illegal invasion, and japan has actually given you the 1000000000 dollars in age and funding financial support, as well as non wasteful military equipment. he cried. so those are the main threats which are being used to justify this radical restructuring of the self defense forces. and this huge increase long term into the budget. and that will require a greater cooperation with japan, security partners. and of course,

includes the united states, which still has the largest basing of troops and military forces outside of the united states in the vices that it has throughout japan, mostly in canada. but so very interestingly, japan is increasing security cooperation with other countries. australia particular, the beginning of this year, the reciprocal access agreement was signed. and that means the struggling forces. japanese forces will operate much more closely together. and just the last weekend there was a meeting of the trilateral security strategic dollar defense ministers in hawaii. and they have also committed to a share strategy in the pacific region, much more close the trilateral military exercises. and even in the philippines, self defense forces, the joints of south korea, philippine and american forces. and also very importantly, south korea. there was

a trilateral exercise between the united states, south korea, and the japanese maritime self defense forces. so all these things are concurrently happening to increase these trains of greater japanese activity bought the self defense force. all right, sir, i have a feeling i know the answer. having listened to what craig was just saying that about china's increasing assertiveness and the threat from north korea and everything else that he was saying. there's no doubt in your mind than the japan is not using what it perceives as a regional and global threat as the current regional and global threats as an excuse just an excuse to bolster its military capabilities. it is actually pursuing a perfectly reasonable set of defense policies, given the deteriorating security environment in the, in the pacific region. it's basically a geopolitical matter. and i think japan is excessively neutral in many sense,

partly because of the domestic, you know, politics as a concern. but you know, i think it's very, very clear now that especially as craig was mentioning the forming of quad and also use japan bilateral agreements and also with south korea. it's very, very clear that in on japan will be citing by a the united states in the free world. if you look at the trade side, that's also very, very clear. in fact, they're very closely correlated, especially with the supply chain, the global supply chain problem that we're all facing right now, which is, in fact, a very big reason for this. you know, inflation that real facing. we basically have to go for security rather than just the effectiveness and that is causing a very big cost. partly we have to truncate china for many of our supply chain. we're moving from, you know, just in time jackie into g i. c, which is just in case as we saw, and that will be needed during, you know,

especially days of pandemic. and the success of inclination or relies to china is a very dangerous thing. ah, so many countries have basically clarified, japan included, you know, which side they should stick on. ah, and japan certainly is one of them. and, you know, the military issue in japan has very close correlation with geopolitical issue and of course, economic issues in vol. craig, we talked about a to pounds pacifist constitution that, that the defense agreement with, with australia or among other neighbors. i mean what, what does this all mean for japan's relations with? it's the regional neighbors. i mean, i'd also it, it's, it's overseas allies, the u. s. in particular, can japan no longer rely on the us to defend it? well, the experience of the trumpet administration was

a big shock for allies like japan and australia. so and so this has to be a part of the background thinking of why japan is increasing its own self defense forces and why it's reaching out to other partners like las dryly but also india in the quad. although this concerns about india still remaining fairly close to russia, but especially in se, asia, there's been a big push by japan to increase its foreign aid into the as in countries and in investments. particularly with countries like indonesia, but also increasing security cooperation with the philippines. we get non the coast guard, the japanese coast guard in particular, does lots of training in the supply vessels and shipping to vietnam in the philippines. but also with other countries in the region. and that it has been

a big focus on japan to try and balance against what's seen as the rising competition of china. but of course, and charter is the largest trading partner still of japan. and japan has been concerned about the ongoing lock downs in this slowing of the chinese economy. and so in his space today promised the case, it did say that japan does wants to maintain stable relations with china. the 50th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between japan and people's republic of china and one. the hope that japan has is that the chinese tourists will return. that was the big focus of the promised the case. it is space today this month, the coded restrictions that have been put in place will be abolished and they are

hoping to restore numbers of tourism 2 to 4 pre counted levels very quickly. and the chinese market is very important for that. so that's going to be a big concern, the key should i, can he keep a stable relationship with china and can he use that relationship to help rebuild the economy as jeris, craig was saying the speech wasn't all about defense on monday. what did you make all of the speech? perhaps more importantly, what will the public have made of it? he said that is number one. priority was to revitalize the economy. and you and i've been talking on television for a very long time about about the japanese economy. how many prime ministers before him have said that, can it be done or his policies, the right ones to do it? well it be pretty difficult on the reason for it being is that he does have what we call the golden 3 years. in other words, he doesn't have any obstacles such as the elections for next 3 or so he could

basically touch on structural transition. the sure, but i'm not sure if he can actually do that. of course in that he can talk about his grade, was saying about trying to increase the imbalance, you know, tourism maybe increase 5 training in or so. but right now we have a very big headache right in front of us, which is inflation or fear are still compared to us, which is above 8 percent. you're more than that. japan is only 2 percent. so you can see that it really isn't here yet. and the reason for this is in japan is cost push inflation, not like demand poo inflation like in the united states. so it doesn't seem serious but considering the weakness. yes, this will hurt the japanese economy big time. until now we can again, was good news for japanese big export or so a flourish in all the system as a whole. and that was one big success by mister ave, on his 1st arrow. but considering the fact that you know this excessive move in

this quick acceleration, the yen is acceleration of the dollar. i'm sorry, weakness the yen is going to hurt. you know, our japan in various ways. ah, it could hinder many of the plans that he was talking about today, which is particularly economics and also into some of the political geo domestic political issues. i can of cation church issue. but on the fact of the matter is, is that many people tend to think that you know, all, we can go on forever as we may have all the funds. because we have the big daddy, gold, bank of japan. but you know, let's face the package man has been buying back our j g. be japan govern bond over a 170 trillion in the past 2 years and their current kind of swell to almost 600 trillion yet. now as we see one percent increase in our interest rate in order to fight off this week in the year, you know, their payoff is going to be well over 5 trillion that wipes out in his stories

about an inbound benefit that's going to come out. and moreover, the net worth of bank pad is only tensioning and so i have been saying, and i will say it again. baggage, man, do not have the deep pocket. like many people think. so this is a very important part of our economic plans going forward. as the baggage passed, ability isn't as stable as many people want it to be. so there are a lot of problem ahead for mr. shita. and to basically, you know, conduct his, his, his, you know, many as why he hasn't gone into concrete measures. you know there will be a lot of obstacles, i think ahead for him, especially during this term. well, we're seeing externally. craig was monday speech enough to restore public faith in the prime minister's government. there was a pole in the asahi newspaper on monday that showed that disapproval for cash. it us administration was as high as 50 percent of his government recover from something like that. what's done more damage to the prime minister inflation of the

week in the state of the economy that this year was talking about then, or his parties links to the unification church. the controversy of a sions obeys funeral. i think the unification, church revelations in the white cushions are by dissemination. and the funeral itself has seen the big drop in the critical writing for progress. the case is government. people already a bit concerned about inflation even before the july election, which saw the ruling party fairly comfortably returned. but the revelations of the unification church links to at least half of the diet members in the l. d. p . that has been a huge shock and it has really reverberated throughout the media and political environment of japan. so, and that's why mr. kesha that today. he didn't mention

a lot, but he just said he was aware of the problems that it occurred. and he was made some mention of maybe tinkering with consumer protection laws to try and cock with to make sure that people get ripped off by unification church in future. and he will be hoping that with least number 3 years to go before the next law house election that that will blow box the opposition parties relatively weak as they will still keep pushing on this issue. and that is probably get a dog mr. case up for quite some period of time to come, and potentially the approval ratings remain low. and the of the economic challenges don't come about. given all the structural challenges, then mr. case should have, could find himself confronted by rivals even before water. the next election?

2025. yes sir. i've got about a minute left on the, on the programs you just want to want to want to pick on that. i mean, i know you said he's got this, this, this 3 years, but i can, he taught his, his government's fortunes around that time. well i think a lot of the bull is in the corporate sides in all for example use talking about changing live long employment here. decision to meritocracy, which i think is a very destructive transition. japan needs and basically will increase the wage overall. but you know, the question is, can the japanese government will propel the corporations, do that? i me in days of mr. ave is a corporation that really didn't make the move. so in a risk thinking, capability and ability by japanese corporation will be ask or not only the government, i think would be tweeting about the government far too much. we should realized that the ball is definitely in the court of the corporations. especially this time around gentlemen that we must end at many thanks. indeed for being with us agenda

took a sheet up and craig mock. i'm thank you for watching. don't forget, you can see the program again at any time just by going to the website at al jazeera dot com for further discussion, join us on our facebook page. you'll find that at facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. and you can join the conversation on twitter. i'll handle at ha, inside story from me, adrian finnegan on the whole team. here. thanks for being with us. we'll see again, my thought, ah ah, a october on al jazeera, containing for nigerian elections begins as candidates via for votes and what is

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