Japan’s security environment is becoming even severer with the dramatic shift in the global power balance, the emergence of new threats such as terrorism and cyber attacks, and the severe security environment in the Asia-Pacific region. Such threats easily cross national borders.

The Asia-Pacific Region

• Despite the concentration of nations that possess large-scale military capability including nuclear-weapons states, regional cooperation frameworks on security are not sufficiently institutionalized.
• North Korea’s continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs as well as its provocative behavior.
• China’s advancement of its military capacity without transparency, and its further activities in the sea and air space.

© Imaginechina / Jiji Press Photo

© Korea News Service = Jiji

Global

• Shift in the global power balance and rapid progress of technological innovation.
• Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the emergence of threats that cross national borders, including international terrorism and risks in the sea, outer space and cyberspace.
• Issues related to “human security,” including poverty and development challenges, and growing risks to the global economy.