Japan on Friday announced the largest increase in its military budget since World War II. The $320 billion plan effectively prepares the country for prolonged conflict and includes the purchase of missiles that can reach China.
Amid a 10month war in Ukraine and regional tensions in Asia, a previously unthinkable war budget in traditionally pacifist Japan has pushed the country to third place in the ranking of highest military spending, behind only the United States and China.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the billiondollar plan as “a turning point in history” and said it was his answer to the many security challenges Japan faces.
That list includes fears that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will encourage China to attack Taiwan. This would threaten Japanese islands near areas Beijing considers a rebel province, cut off supplies of semiconductors vital to global industry, and strangle sea lanes that supply oil to the Middle East.
China, Midland
In its postwar constitution, Japan gives up the right to war and the means to go to war. So the new military budget appears to point in the other direction, although Tokyo argues that any planned investments are part of a selfdefense strategy.
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a serious violation of laws prohibiting the use of force and has shaken the foundations of the international order,” reads the text announcing the plan.
Furthermore, similar to the revised US defense strategy, the Japanese plan notes that Beijing has never ruled out the use of force to subdue Taiwan to its interests and defines China as the greatest challenge Japan has ever faced previous strategic documents also cited Russia and North Korea.
“The Prime Minister [Kishida] makes a clear and unambiguous strategic statement about Japan’s role as a security provider in the IndoPacific,” US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. “He put a capital D next to Japan’s deterrence,” adding on the ability to to curb possible war impulses from Tokyo’s opponents.
As expected, Taiwan welcomed the Japanese plan. President Tsai Ingwen expressed the hope that cooperation between Tokyo and Taipei will continue in all aspects.
For its part, China accused Japan of making false allegations about Beijing’s military activities. China’s defense budget exceeded Japan’s at the turn of the century and is now four times as high.
Kishida’s plan will double defense spending to around 2% of GDP (gross domestic product) in five years, surpassing the benchmark since 1976, which capped that figure at 1%.
The increased spending will favor Japanese companies like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which is expected to lead development of three of the longrange missiles that will be part of Japan’s new missile force and foreign companies like Raytheon Technologies, which make the US Tomahawk cruise missile manufactures.
However, the billionaire budget has already brought some political setbacks to Kishida. That’s because some of the money making up the new plan will come from a tax hike that was also announced this Friday, but with no effective date. A wing of the Liberal Democratic Party, the prime minister’s acronym, opposes the rate hike that could jeopardize Kishida’s leadership at the top of the country.