Japan PM's defence doctrine and Asean's position: Jakarta Post contributor

JAKARTA (The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network): Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida(pic) has promised that by the end of this year, he will launch Japan's National Security Strategy for the next five years, which is - simply put - a military build-up.

He plans to double Japan's defence budget to 2 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). Even at the current scale, Japan is already the world's ninth-largest defense spender.