Japan will have its pick of names for the new aircraft carrier it has announced it will build. The names of previous carriers like, Soryu, Hiryu, Akagi, Kaga, Shokaku, Zuikaku, and the Shimano all come to mind.  The Shimano, which was converted from an unfinished Yamato class battleship was the largest aircraft carrier ever built until the US launched the nuclear-powered Enterprise in the 1960s.

Communist China’s rapid expansion of its navy has sparked a naval arms race in the Pacific with the US asking its allies in the Pacific to expand their naval capabilities with regard to ships, planes and missiles in order to deter aggression from China in perhaps the next ten years. Japan is taking steps to do so while holding well short of calling Communist China a direct threat to its national security.

At least so far.  And this may be a problem later on.

Beyond absorbing Taiwan into communist China, Beijing has set its sights on being the hegemon of the Pacific east to the Hawaiian Islands, north to Alaska, and South to New Guinea.

In a recent speech by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on December 16th, Japan put itself behind three initiatives as its guiding defense principles.  The first is the Free and Open Indo-Pacific FOIP which it began in 2016.  It mirrors the US policy encompassing Free Trade on the High Seas. It has three components, first is the establishment and enforcement of the rule of law(international), including freedom of navigation and free trade….