Japan's Defense Ministry has signed a contract to purchase up to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States.

Japan decided to acquire the missiles as part of its efforts to fundamentally strengthen its defense capabilities.

The acquisition is in line with Japan's decision in 2022 to obtain counterstrike capabilities to attack enemy missile bases and other targets.

In October, the defense chiefs of Japan and the US agreed that Japan will acquire 200 Tomahawk missiles, or half of the total, starting in the fiscal year that begins in April 2025. That is one year earlier than originally planned.

Japan's Defense Minister Kihara Minoru and US ambassador Rahm Emanuel witnessed the signing of the contract at the defense ministry in Tokyo on Thursday.

Kihara said that Japan and the US can launch the project just three months from the October agreement thanks to great efforts made by officials from both countries.

Emanuel said the planned deployment will act as a deterrence in this region.

The defense ministry says it will cost about 1.15 billion dollars to purchase the missiles and another 570 million dollars to install them to Japanese vessels equipped with Aegis missile defense systems.

Japan plans to complete the deployment of the Tomahawk missiles by fiscal 2027.