The launching of several missiles by North Korea on July 4 could prompt Japan’s leaders to increase defense and military spending, something China and North Korea would not like to see, according to James Auer, director of the Center for U.S-Japan Studies and Cooperation at Vanderbilt University. Auer is a former special assistant on Japan for the Secretary of Defense and a retired naval commander who was stationed in Japan and the Western Pacific. He has written numerous articles and made a number of presentations addressing East Asian security and defense policies. He is the co-author of “The Maritime Basis of American Security in East Asia,” in the Naval War College Review.