(MENAFN) On Friday, Japan announced substantial reforms to its national security policy, as well as a major military investment plan. It promised to develop long-debated "counterattack capabilities" to strike its opponents' bases and command centers with long-range missiles.

The five-year plan calls for increasing the country's defense spending to 2% of GDP, representing a 50% increase in the yearly military budget and a total of $320 billion.

“Looking at Japan’s surroundings, it is facing the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II,” the nation’s new National Security Strategy (NSS) states, in reference to skyrocketing pressure from “those seeking to unilaterally change the status quo by force.”

The strategy named Japan’s neighbors, it includes China and North Korea, as the largest threats to the country. “The strategic challenge posed by China is the biggest Japan has ever faced,” the document argues. It also branded the ongoing calamity among Russia and Ukraine a “serious violation of laws that forbid the use of force and has shaken the foundations of the international order.”

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