The Liberal Democratic Party and Nippon Ishin no Kai have moved to schedule the first working-level meeting on revising the three security-related documents for Nov. 10, multiple people familiar with the matter said on the 4th. The parties aim to have the documents approved by the cabinet in December and are starting to coordinate positions within the ruling bloc in earnest.
The three documents — the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy and the Defense Buildup Program — set out Japan's defense spending targets and the capabilities it plans to acquire. Their revision is the point at which the country's defense posture itself changes, not just the paperwork behind it.
The Nov. 10 meeting would be the first under the working-level framework the two parties agreed to for the rewrite. Details of what the meeting will cover were not given.