Japan's ruling parties will open talks next month on new security documents, split over nuclear submarines

Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party and its partner, the Japan Innovation Party, known as Ishin, have decided to open working-level talks in November on the revision of the country's three core security documents, including the National Security Strategy, which the government plans to rewrite before the end of the year. Several people familiar with the plan disclosed it on 20 October, Kyodo News reported.

The LDP's security research commission confirmed the approach at a meeting of its senior members in the Diet the same day, Jiji Press and the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. The talks are expected to begin next month and will be led by the heads of the two parties' security panels, Yasukazu Hamada for the LDP and Seiji Maehara for Ishin. The parties plan to hear from the government on the state of its review and then try to reach a common position.

According to Jiji, the government is drafting the revisions with input from an expert panel, and the two parties are expected to negotiate on the basis of the draft it produces. A ruling party official told Kyodo that the structure needed for a fundamental build-up of Japan's defences and the scale of defence spending could also become topics.

The hardest issues are nuclear policy and submarines. Both parties gave Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi separate recommendations in June because they could not agree on a single text. The LDP's paper called for further strengthening the credibility of the nuclear deterrent the United States extends to Japan, but it did not mention the three non-nuclear principles, Kyodo reported. Ishin, by contrast, said the principle of not allowing nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan should be given realistic consideration.

On submarines, the LDP asked the government to move quickly on measures to acquire boats that can fire long-range missiles from vertical launch tubes for counterstrike, including the use of next-generation propulsion, without naming nuclear power, the Yomiuri reported. Ishin went further and urged the early introduction of nuclear-powered submarines. Jiji said the wording on research into nuclear submarines would be a focus of the talks.

Money is the other dividing line. In its June proposal the LDP set no numerical target for defence spending and instead asked for the essential costs to be built up item by item, while Ishin put forward a numerical goal, according to the Yomiuri and Nikkei. The Yomiuri added that how to pay for higher defence outlays will be a key question at a time when the government is pursuing a cut in consumption tax.

The outcome will shape how far Japan's next strategy goes on long-range strike, undersea forces, nuclear deterrence and defence funding. The talks will also show whether the two governing partners can close the gaps they left open in June before the government finalises the documents at the end of the year.