By the year’s end, Japan is due to unveil its new national security strategy; released once every four years.
It’s expected to chart the course for a major military overhaul, and bring the tension between Japan’s pacifist identity and current strategic reality to a head.
Nowhere is that tension more acute than Okinawa – closer to Taiwan than Tokyo – where the scars of World War Two run deep.
The islands are already home to 31 US military bases, which China has repeatedly signalled it could strike this year.
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