CVN(Japan) Japan just fired a live anti-ship missile straight into waters China claims as its own.
The target was a decommissioned warship, 75km off the Philippine coast, in the South China Sea.
Two Japanese Type 88 missile volleys. Six minutes. The ship was sinking.
This is the first time Japan has joined the Balikatan exercises as a live-fire participant — alongside the US, Australia, France, New Zealand, and Canada.
This isn’t the pacifist Japan of the postwar decades.
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi watched the strike from the ground in Paoay. President Marcos watched from Manila by live feed.
And Tokyo is now in talks to transfer Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft directly to the Philippines — something that would have been illegal under Japan’s old arms export ban.
China’s foreign ministry called it Tokyo “launching offensive missiles under the guise of security cooperation.”
Japan didn’t flinch.
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