There are currently 1,400 ammunition storage facilities in Japan, mostly concentrated in Hokkaido. The number is expected to increase by 130 by 2035. Some of them will be designed to store Japanese-made advanced Type-12 guided missiles, which have a range of over 1,000 km, and the 1,600 km range US Tomahawk cruise missiles, with which the government plans to equip the Self-Defense Forces in the near future.
How are the residents of the prefectures where the storage facilities will be built reacting to these plans? Sputnik put this question to Oleg Kazakov, senior researcher at the Japanese Studies Center of the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
“Of course, storage facilities for such weapons are objectively explosive objects even in peacetime. But during a military conflict, as the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict shows, such facilities become the first target for high-tech guided missiles.”
According to the expert, ammunition depots are first and foremost targets for strikes in order to deprive the enemy army of the opportunity to replenish its reserves. And, of course, this entails certain risks for the residents of nearby communities. People would feel fear, anxiety and threat to themselves.
“On the one hand, however, the Japanese government has already learned how to build relationships with local governments and communities, trying to minimize risks and choose sites where there can be the least harm to the population. The experience of Okinawa in particular has shown this. Second, in terms of public sentiment, there is a slow but growing understanding of the need to strengthen the country's defense capabilities, and the public is beginning to view government actions in this direction as forced security measures,” the expert noted.
The disproportionate number of ammunition depots in Hokkaido is an echo of World War II and later the Cold War, when Japan seriously feared a Soviet attack. Now, Japanese authorities believe geopolitical risks are emerging from another direction. According to Japanese and US estimates, China now has 1,250 intermediate-range missiles designed to deter the US Seventh Pacific Fleet and threaten American bases on Japanese territory.