Commentary: Asia is rearming fast – but counting the wrong kind of military power

BEIJING: For six decades, Nissan’s Oppama plant south of Tokyo built cars – some 18 million, including the Leaf, the world’s first mass-market electric car. The plant is due to close in 2028. Its next life may be building military drones: Anduril, the US defence technology firm, is in talks to take over the site – next door to the Yokosuka naval base – and retrain its workers. Whether or not the deal closes, the talks put the sharpest question in Asian defence on a factory floor. The region’s militaries need more than weapons – they need ways of turning…