Japan Prepares For Imminent War

 

Japan powers up strategic Indian islands as Washington prepares for Suga

 

A Battery-Powered Island

A relatively small grant issued by the Japanese government has caught the attention of Indo-Pacific watchers. The $36 million in aid to install a battery energy storage system on India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands -- Japan's first-ever grant to the strategically located islands -- is about much more than clean energy, analysts told Ken Moriyasu. Sitting at the mouth of the Malacca Strait, arguably the most important chokepoint in the world, the islands give India and its friends a front-row view of Chinese vessels going into and out of the narrow waterway.

Trade Corridor -- Business & Commerce

Wary of the concentration of chip production in mainland China and Taiwan, where geopolitical risks are high, the U.S. and Japan are looking to ink an agreement when their leaders meet in Washington next Friday to cooperate on a secure semiconductor supply chain, where the two close allies will divvy up R&D and production tasks. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden's $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, released last week and vowing to "position the United States to out-compete China," includes $50 billion earmarked for the U.S. chip sector to boost manufacturing at home.

Battle Stations -- Conflict & Security

It was a tense week on the high seas of the Indo-Pacific. A Chinese aircraft carrier passed through the Miyako Strait over the weekend, off the coast of southwestern Japan, and Cliff Venzon covered how Manila-Beijing ties are strained after the Philippines protested 200 Chinese ships that were first detected in contested waters near the Whitsun Reef. Consequently, tensions in the East and South China Seas were assessed to be at an all-time high. Contributor Alexander Neill wrote a widely read piece about the very real dangers of a confrontation with China, which is also looking into the feasibility of a "two-ocean" navy.