TOKYO, Oct 15 (NNN-NHK) – Japan, yesterday, unveiled its newest 3,000-tonne submarine, named Taigei, which was built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., amid no signs of the nation reining in its ever-increasing and constitutionally questionable “defence” spending.
The submarine was unveiled at a shipyard in western Japan and is slated to go into service as the 22nd vessel in the Maritime Self-Defence Force’s (MSDF) submarine fleet, in Mar, 2022.
Tokyo has been planning to boost the number of its subs from 16 to 22, under plans laid out in its National Defence Programme Guidelines in 2010, and Taigei, which means “big whale” will be able to house 70 crews.
The vessel is 84 metres in length and 9.1 metres in width, and comes with a price tag of around 76 billion yen (722.23 million U.S. dollars) to build, the MSDF said, adding that, the incorporation of lithium-ion batteries allow the vessel to remain under water for longer than previous models.
According to the MSDF, Japan currently operates nine 2,750-tonne Oyashio-class submarines, and 11 2,950-tonne Soryu-class warships.
The MSDF is planning to introduce a 12th Soryu-class sub next year, it said.
As for the new Taigei, it will be the first in the new Taigei-class category, following the Oyashio and Soryu, the MSDF explained.
Defence Minister, Nobuo Kishi, MSDF Chief of Staff, Hiroshi Yamamura, and around 150 others attended a ceremony yesterday, held at a Japanese defence equipment maker’s Kobe Shipyard, in Hyogo Prefecture.
Japan is still bound by the constraints of its pacifist constitution, Article 9 of which states that, the “Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.”
“In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as, other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognised,” the key pacifist article in the constitution reads.
Nevertheless, at the end of last month, Japan’s Defence Ministry requested a record 5.49-trillion yen (52.17-billion U.S. dollar) budget, for the fiscal year starting in Apr, 2021, with the request rising 3.3 percent from the initial budget for the current fiscal year, through Mar, 2021.
With the ministry eyeing allocations for enhancing capabilities in outer space, cyberspace, as well as, financing for land-based infrastructure and hardware, Japan’s defence spending under new Prime Minister, Yoshihide Suga, is looking set to rise for the ninth straight year.
