AFTER 70 YEARS FROM THE END WW2–JAPAN’S NAVY IS ONCE AGAIN REJUVENATED TO BECOME THE 5TH LARGEST NAVY BEHIND THE US, RUSSIA, CHINA, AND THE UK–AS THE JDF GETS NEW ORDERS TO ROAM THE ASIAN WATERS TO COUNTER CHINA’S LAND GRABS–AS THE PRIME MINISTER ABE RE-INTERPRETS JAPAN’S CONSTITUTION ALLOWING FOR GREATER MILITARY EXPANSION ROLE IN ASIAN WATERS

Vice Adm. Robert Thomas, commander of the US Seventh Fleet, said he expects revisions headed for approval in Japan’s parliament will make it easier for the Japanese and allied navies to cooperate more smoothly in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

It’s also one of the reasons Washington is urging an Australia-Japan submarine deal: It sees such a multibillion-dollar project as strengthening regional defence ties.

Japan is shifting its defence priorities from northern reaches near Russia to the East China Sea, where Tokyo and Beijing are locked in a dispute over a chain of uninhabited islands — part of the same Ryukyu Island chain assaulted exactly 70 years ago.

Japan is setting up an amphibious deployment unit similar to the US.

Marines to respond quickly to any invasion of those islands and is also planning to upgrade its air defences with F-35 stealth fighters and Global Hawk drones.

It also includes a force of small aircraft carriers (though you cannot call them that, they’re ‘helicopter destroyers’).

Defence analysis now regard Japan as having the fifth most powerful navy in the world, Behind the US, Russia, China and the United Kingdom.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/japanese-navy-to-extend-its-reach-into-pacific-again-and-the-us-is-happy-about-it/story-fnpjxnlk-1227290886867