Japan’s Self-Defense Capability: “Minimum Extent Necessary”

The government and ruling parties proactively worked towards revisions of the three key defense documents, including the National Security Strategy, and these have recently received Cabinet approval. At the time of writing of this paper, Russian aggression against Ukraine, China's military actions, and North Korea's intermittent missile launches have had a major impact on the general public’s awareness of national security. Given the current situation, it is reasonable to assume that the security environment around Japan will continue to deteriorate. Japan has long maintained an exclusively defense-oriented policy. Thus, in the event of an armed attack, Japan is constrained to using force to the “minimum extent necessary” beyond proportionality.