Pacifist Japan has declared that it can now respond to an attack with its own missile strikes, but while Tokyo has framed this new security strategy as a response to rising Chinese aggression and North Korea’s ever-expanding weapons arsenal, some in South Korea are wary of its former colonizer’s militarization.

On Friday, Japan’s cabinet approved the country’s new national security strategy (NSS), the first such revision in nine years. The update details Japan’s plans to increase defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product and acquire counterstrike capabilities.

Japan — whose pacifist