Photo/Illutration The cover of this year's defense white paper (Naoki Matsuyama)

This year's defense white paper shines a spotlight on the greater cooperation between Russia and China, while adding a new chapter addressing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and doubling the pages devoted to Taiwan. 

Strong criticism was directed at Russia, which was said to have “shaken the foundation of the overall international order, including in Asia.”

The white paper for 2022 pointed out the heavy damage inflicted on the Russian military and noted “there is the possibility that could lead to a decline in Russia’s national power in the medium- and long-term as well as a change in the military balance with the surrounding region.”

The document raised the possibility of Russia and China pursuing greater cooperation to deal with the United States as well as the risk that Moscow might place greater emphasis on its nuclear arsenal.

Such possibilities led the white paper to raise concerns about “the effects on the global situation, including on how the strategic competition between the United States and China develops as well as the possible effects on Asia.”

Special attention was placed on the Russia-China situation with a new analytical piece dealing with the topic.

Among the details included were the joint sailing of ships of the Russian and Chinese navies in waters near Japan in October 2021 and the joint flying of Russian and Chinese bombers in May near its airspace after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Pointing out that Beijing has not criticized the invasion of Ukraine, the white paper indicated “the relationship was one of consenting if the other party invaded another nation.”

Last year’s defense white paper introduced a new chapter about the strategic competition between the United States and China. This year’s edition doubled the number of pages devoted to Taiwan within that context.

While last year’s edition only pointed out that the stability of Taiwan was important for the stability of the international community, this year’s version said, “greater attention will be focused with a heightened sense of awareness on related developments while cooperating with the international community under the recognition that any change in the status quo through the use of force was a common concern of the world.”

More details were also provided regarding defense spending, in an apparent bid to gain public understanding for the move toward greatly increasing defense spending by the government.

The white paper touched upon the agreement by NATO member nations to raise their defense spending to at least 2 percent of gross domestic product.

There was also an international comparison of per capita defense spending, with Japan at 40,000 yen ($290) while the United States was at 210,000 yen, China at 20,000 yen, Russia at 90,000 yen, South Korea at 120,000 yen and Britain at 100,000 yen.

“Defense spending is a major indicator of a nation’s will to defend itself," Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said at his July 22 news conference. "We included this entry for the first time to gain the understanding of the public about the current situation regarding defense spending.”

The white paper also touched upon legislation regarding economic security that passed the Diet this year and said the Defense Ministry would aggressively provide its knowledge related to that area.

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