Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada told Nikkei on Tuesday, in an interview, that the country is going to expand its ammunition and fuel storage space on the Nansei Islands in the East China Sea, in order to prepare itself for the possible escalation of the crisis in the Taiwan Strait.
"To protect Japan, it's important for us to have not only hardware such as aircraft and ships, but also enough ammunition for them," Hamada noted. He further said Tokyo "will radically strengthen the defense capabilities we need, including our capacity for sustained and flexible deployment."
Previously, it was reported that the Japanese authorities were considering deploying 1,000 of the country's long-range cruise missiles to the Nansei Islands.
