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How Tokyo is widening regional defence ties to complicate Beijing’s Taiwan calculus
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Gabriel DominguezPublished: 6:00am, 8 Sep 2026
The risk of a conflict over Taiwan is shaping Japanese defence planning, with Tokyo shoring up security at home and abroad for a potentially prolonged fight. But there are economic, demographic and political constraints on how far its military transformation can go. In the first of a three-part series, Gabriel Dominguez examines how Japan is building a network of partnerships to strengthen its strategic endurance.
Japan is rapidly building a web of defence partnerships spanning the Indo-Pacific and beyond, a move that may bolster its ability to withstand a prolonged armed conflict over Taiwan and complicate Beijing’s calculations.
The push was on display in Australia last month, where Tokyo and Canberra moved to deepen cooperation, ranging from defence planning and advanced weapons development to the construction and sustainment of Japanese-designed warships.
But the deepening relationship with Australia is only part of a much broader shift.
With Taiwan increasingly shaping its defence planning, Japan is connecting regional military ties with defence-industrial and technological partnerships across North America and Europe.
The United States is Japan’s only treaty ally and security cornerstone, and Tokyo is looking to other countries to complement that relationship: from operational and logistical cooperation with Australia and the Philippines to weapons production, intelligence and more secure supply chains farther afield.
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