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For America and Japan, Peace and Security Through Technology, Pt 2
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Japan ruling party seeks big defense budget rise amid China threat
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May 25, 2021
A joint defense panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday approved a draft proposal for the government to “drastically” increase the country’s defense budget in the face of the increased security threat posed by China in the East and South China seas.
The move seeking a rise in the budget comes as neighboring countries including China are increasing their defense budgets and NATO has set a target for its members to spend at least 2% of gross domestic product on defense, according to the proposal.
Japan’s defense budget has long amounted to around 1% of the country’s GDP, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Its defense spending in fiscal 2020 totaled ¥5.31 trillion ($48.8 billion), accounting for 0.9% of the country’s GDP.
An Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighter jet takes off during a training exercise. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Skyrocketing costs have forced the Defense Ministry to drastically revise its strategy to protect outlying islands against moves by China.
Ministry officials had initially hoped to retrofit F-15 fighter jets so that they could fire long-range cruise missiles to defend the Nansei island chain that stretches southwest from Okinawa Prefecture.
But expenses in the initial preparatory stage of design and constructing the facilities for the retrofitting have continued to climb, and ministry officials still have no idea what the ultimate total cost of the project might end up being.
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