TOKYO—Japan needs to consider building a missile-strike capability against potential foes, including China and North Korea, said one of the two top candidates to become the nation’s next leader, former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Kishida struck a hard-line tone on China, calling Taiwan the front line in the struggle by democracies to resist authoritarianism’s advance. He said Tokyo and Washington needed to run joint simulations of how they would respond together in a crisis scenario involving Taiwan, going a step further than current government officials.

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