alt Hacker NewsThey already are investing in the JSDF. The JS Chokai is in San Diego right now being equipped with Tomahawk cruise missles, but AFAIK the plan is to equipped all 8 Kongo class destroyers with those missles.
And that's just one part of the expansion. But the short version is that the JSDF isn't staying a defensive only institution.
Nowadays, are large ships well protected from small unmanned underwater ships? Are they worth building?