The 598-page document, approved by Japan’s Cabinet on Tuesday, identifies China’s expanding military activity as the country’s most significant strategic challenge. It also highlights lessons from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, where drones and artificial intelligence have become increasingly important on the battlefield.

The report comes as Japan continues expanding defense spending, strengthening military capabilities and investing in long-range strike systems to improve deterrence across the Indo-Pacific.

Combat Drones Become a Defense Priority

Japan’s defense strategy places growing emphasis on unmanned systems as military planners adapt to changing forms of warfare.

The white paper says domestically developed combat drones will play a key role in coastal defense and will operate alongside long-range missile systems.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said earlier this month that rapid development is essential to keeping pace with emerging threats.

Japan’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency has selected four companies from 38 applicants to develop prototype combat drones. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force plans to begin testing the aircraft in early August before selecting a final design.

Private companies are also expanding investment in the sector. Toshiba recently announced a partnership with startup Pro Drone to jointly develop military drone technology.

Officials believe unmanned systems could help offset Japan’s shrinking military workforce as the country’s population continues to age and decline.

China Remains Japan’s Main Security Concern

The defense paper again identifies China as Japan’s primary security challenge.

Tokyo cited the growing frequency of Chinese naval operations, expanding military capabilities and continued modernization of China’s missile and nuclear forces.

Japan has strengthened military deployments across its southwestern islands and introduced long-range cruise missiles amid concerns that a conflict involving Taiwan could directly affect Japan’s security.

The report also points to China’s expanding defense budget and what it describes as limited transparency regarding military spending.

Among the incidents highlighted is an episode in December in which Chinese military aircraft allegedly locked targeting radar onto Japanese aircraft during carrier operations near southwestern Japan.

The white paper also notes that two Chinese aircraft carriers operated near Iwo Jima in June, marking their first deployment in the area and reinforcing Japanese concerns about China’s expanding military reach into the western Pacific.

Russia and North Korea Add to Regional Risks

The report also highlights growing military cooperation between China and Russia, including joint bomber patrols and naval exercises near Japan.

Meanwhile, North Korea’s advancing missile program remains a major concern.

The white paper warns that Pyongyang continues developing increasingly sophisticated missile technology, including hypersonic weapons, while expanding military cooperation with Russia during the war in Ukraine.

Japanese officials say those developments are increasing security risks throughout Northeast Asia.

Government Expands Domestic Defense Industry

Alongside military modernization, Japan is seeking to strengthen its domestic defense industry.

The government is increasing support for defense research, technology startups and dual-use technologies with both civilian and military applications.

Although many Japanese companies have historically avoided weapons production because of the country’s post-World War II pacifist policies, officials say more technology firms are entering the defense sector.

The white paper also says Japan’s decision to ease restrictions on weapons exports should strengthen domestic manufacturing while expanding security cooperation with international partners.

Recent agreements include plans to jointly develop upgraded Mogami-class frigates for Australia. Japan is also discussing similar cooperation with New Zealand and has agreed to transfer retired destroyers to the Philippines.

The latest defense strategy reflects Japan’s broader effort to modernize its armed forces while responding to an increasingly complex regional security environment.

This report is based on reporting by The Associated Press.

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Kempf is the founder of Kyber, a Paris-based startup developing an infrastructure layer designed to synchronize video, audio, sensor data, and control inputs with minimal latency. The system is positioned for use cases where operators and machines are physically separated from the underlying compute and execution environment.

The company has raised a $5 million funding round led by venture capital firm Lightspeed, which has also backed companies including Anthropic and Mistral AI. Lightspeed framed its investment in the context of “physical AI,” stating that such systems depend heavily on robust underlying infrastructure.

Kyber’s core product is an SDK that focuses on real-time coordination between remote operators and distributed devices. Kempf describes the system as addressing environments “where the person who’s operating is not in the same place as the compute, which is not in the same place as the action.”

The startup’s technical approach draws heavily from streaming architecture. Kempf previously worked on cloud gaming infrastructure at Shadow, and Kyber’s design reflects that background in low-latency video transmission combined with IoT device optimization.

From Video Streaming to Physical AI Infrastructure

The company’s origins are rooted in video streaming systems, a lineage that traces back to Kempf’s work on VLC and later cloud gaming platforms. Kyber extends those principles into physical systems where latency becomes operationally critical.

Kempf has emphasized that in real-world machine control, timing constraints are strict. “If you control things in the real world, every millisecond matters,” he said, underscoring the importance of minimizing lag between operator input and machine response.

The company argues that while similar systems exist in niche deployments such as remote driving, most are limited in scale. Kempf noted that existing implementations often manage only a few thousand vehicles, whereas future deployments may require coordination across millions of devices.

Scaling Remote Operations and Device Observability

Kyber’s architecture also targets a challenge that becomes more complex at scale: observability. As fleets of autonomous systems grow, ensuring that devices are functioning correctly and responding as expected becomes a core engineering requirement.

The company positions its system as applicable to a range of scenarios, from remote software updates to full operational control of distributed hardware fleets. This includes robotics, drones, and remote IT infrastructure management.

Kyber is also exploring the remote IT access space, a market often associated with enterprise tools such as Citrix. Kempf has indicated that Kyber aims to extend beyond traditional remote desktop models into broader infrastructure control systems.

Open Source Foundations and Enterprise Deployment

Kyber is built on a hybrid model. Its core software remains open source, reflecting Kempf’s long-standing involvement in community-driven development. Alongside this, the company offers enterprise-grade deployments and services, including forward-deployed engineering support.

Forward-deployed engineers form a significant portion of Kyber’s approximately 25-person team. The startup operates from Paris, with additional offices in San Francisco and Singapore, reflecting its target of global enterprise deployment.

According to the company, Kyber is already in commercial use across sectors including defense, telecommunications, robotics, and artificial intelligence systems.

Market Position and Technical Direction

Kyber’s strategic focus is concentrated on three main areas: robotics, drone systems, and remote IT access. Each reflects different aspects of distributed machine control, unified by the requirement for low-latency synchronization between operators and devices.

The company’s underlying premise is that future AI systems will increasingly interact with physical environments, making real-time infrastructure as critical as model performance. Lightspeed described this dependency in its investment announcement, noting that “physical AI is only as good as the underlying systems running it.”

While still early in scale, Kyber’s positioning reflects a broader industry shift toward infrastructure designed for embodied AI systems rather than purely digital applications.

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