Building defense force isn’t just “I’m gonna spend all of this money on guns.” Defense is figuring out what the critical industries and supply chains for the good functioning of your economy and your defense ambitions are. Then ensuring those are under your control, ideally domestically. Only then you can build your actual defense force without external actors halting it at will. And here Takaichi falls flat as so many others who think in terms of spending numbers.
Building defense force isn’t just “I’m gonna spend all of this money on guns.” Defense is figuring out what the critical industries and supply chains for the good functioning of your economy and your defense ambitions are. Then ensuring those are under your control, ideally domestically. Only then you can build your actual defense force without external actors halting it at will. And here Takaichi falls flat as so many others who think in terms of spending numbers.