Japan’s government posits that its 2022 three national security documents are at the same time transformational and yet maintain overall continuity in military and security policy. This talk through investigating several pivotal aspects of the defence reforms weighs the arguments for essential continuity versus step change. It concludes that the three documents fundamentally change Japan’s exclusively defence-oriented policy and the US-Japan alliance division of labour, further accelerate Japan’s radical military trajectory, and pose important implications for regional security.