Japan won’t cap defence spending amid increased ‘anxiety’ over Russia, China, North Korea

A ‘large increase’ in the military budget is likely, with PM Fumio Kishida facing no pushback to plans to raise it to 2 per cent of GDP

An unpredictable North Korea and recent aggression by Russia and China have muted Japan’s domestic response against raising military spending, an observer says

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A drill takes place off the coast of Tanegashima island in Kagoshima, Japan. File photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:28pm, 18 Jul 2022

Japan will not set a ceiling on defence spending in the next annual budget, in keeping with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s pledge before the upper house election to ramp up investment in national security.

The plan will be confirmed and announced before the end of the month, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday.

Significantly, there has been an almost complete absence of objections to the plan by opposition parties, left-leaning media and Japanese society in general, which according to one analyst was a consequence of the conflict in Ukraine, an increasingly aggressive China, the unpredictable regime in North Korea and with Russia also flexing its military muscles in the Far East.

Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force attend a live fire exercise at the East Fuji Maneuver Area in Gotemba on May 28. File photo: AFP

Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at the Tokyo campus of Temple University, pointed out that while there was strong resistance to increasing defence outlays whenever the late former leader Shinzo Abe proposed lifting spending to 2 per cent of GDP, current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has faced no such pushback to similar plans.

According to the Nikkei, Japanese governments typically set a maximum ceiling on spending requests submitted by ministries for the next financial year, which starts on April 1. The aim is to stop budget requests from increasing too rapidly and further stressing the nation’s already-stretched finances. All other ministries will be expected to limit their budget demands for fiscal 2023, except the defence ministry.

“Kishida has said that a ‘significant increase’ is needed and Abe had been calling for defence spending to be effectively doubled to 2 per cent of GDP, so a large increase was always on the cards,” said Kingston.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has faced no pushback to plans for raising military spending to 2 per cent of GDP. File photo: ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

The exact scale of the increase is still “vague”, he said, but increasing the effectiveness of outlays should be one focus of the spending of the some US$50 billion that Japan presently sets aside every year for defence.

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