Several government officials confirmed this. The government will extend the range of the domestically produced Type 12 surface-to-ship missile deployed by the Ground Self-Defence Force from over 100 kilometres to about 1,000 kilometres, reaching the coastal areas of North Korea and China. Improvements are being made so that it can be launched from ships and fighter planes. The improved ground-launched version will be deployed in fiscal 2024, about two years earlier than initially planned.
In the National Security Strategy to be revised at the end of the year, the government is expected to announce the possession of “counterattack capability” to attack the enemy’s missile launching bases for self-defence. Improved missiles will be the core of the “counterattack capability.”
Until now, Japan has not deployed long-range missiles capable of
ground-attacking, as it had a policy of not possessing “enemy base attack capability”
(counterattack capability).
