Japan sees ‘urgent’ need to boost military

TOKYO — Japan needs to boost its military with a “sense of urgency and crisis,” its defense chief said on Tuesday, as a new government assessment again highlighted growing risks from China, North Korea and Russia. Japan is already beefing up military spending and security cooperation in Asia, deploying missile launchers to outer islands, moving to acquire “counterstrike” capabilities, and easing rules on weapons exports. But Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said in a preface to the annual defense white paper that it was “imperative that Japan further reinforce and transform its defense capabilities with a stronger sense of urgency and…