WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Japan is developing supersonic glide bombs to defend remote islands.

Garren Mulloy, an associate professor of international relations at Japan’s Daito Bunka University and an authority on defence issues, said the new weapon would be designed to complement the cruise missiles that the Japanese military has already deployed.

“Up until now, the Japanese have been very short of these precision-guided munitions, especially in comparison to the US, Nato or the Russians, so it comes as no surprise that they want to look into these sorts of weapons,” he said.

The weapons are expected to be deployed aboard mobile, land-based launchers.

Given Tokyo’s concern over the possibility of China occupying the Diaoyu Islands – the archipelago in the East China Sea that Tokyo controls but Beijing claims – it is possible that the first units would be deployed on islands within range of that potential flashpoint.

I’ve joked for years that if you want to see the future of Japan, picture a mountainside geriatric facility guarded by those flying sentinel robots from The Matrix.