Japan lawmaker in Taiwan says the ‘grim reality’ of mainland China threat is reason to increase military spending
- Koichi Hagiuda, pointed to China’s massive increase in military spending, as well as North Korean missile tests, as reasons to increase military spending
- Hagiuda, the LDP’s policy chief made the comments during a Japan-Taiwan forum in Taipei
Japan needs to increase its military spending in the face of the “grim reality” of the threat from mainland China and North Korea, a senior member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party said on Sunday during a visit to Taiwan.
Although Beijing-claimed and democratically-governed Taiwan and Japan do not have formal diplomatic ties, they have close unofficial relations and both share concerns about mainland China, especially its increased military activities near the two.
Koichi Hagiuda, the LDP’s policy chief and a former industry minister, said during a visit to Taipei that since World War II Japan has “walked the path of peace” and that path will not change in the future.
“However just reciting the word peace is of course not enough for our peace to be protected,” he told a forum on Japan-Taiwan relations.
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As Japan prepares next year’s budget Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has already announced plans to lift defence spending to an amount equivalent to 2 per cent of gross domestic product within five years, from 1 per cent now.
That would take Japan’s annual defence budget to more than 11 trillion yen (US$80.55 billion) from 5.4 trillion yen currently, giving the country the world’s third-largest military budget after the United States and China at their current levels.