Japan on Friday announced the biggest increase in its military budget since World War II. The US$ 320 billion plan, in effect, prepares the country for an ongoing conflict and includes the purchase of missiles capable of reaching China.
In the midst of the war in Ukraine, which has now lasted ten months, and regional tensions in Asia, the war budget that would previously be unthinkable in traditionally pacifist Japan places the country in third place in the ranking of highest military spending, behind only the United States and China.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida described the billion-dollar plan as it is —”a turning point in history”—and said it was his response to the many security challenges facing Japan.
That list includes fears that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will encourage China to attack Taiwan. That would threaten Japanese islands close to territory that Beijing considers a rebel province, disrupt supplies of semiconductors crucial to global industry and could strangle sea routes that supply oil to the Middle East.
In its post-war Constitution, Japan gives up the right to wage war and the means to do so. The new military budget, therefore, seems to point in the other direction, although Tokyo argues that all planned investment is part of a self-defense strategy.
“Russian invasion of Ukraine is a serious violation of laws prohibiting the use of force and has shaken the foundations of 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 subjugate 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] is making a clear and unequivocal strategic statement about Japan’s role as a security provider in the Indo-Pacific,” US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. Japan”, he added, referring to the ability to curb possible war impulses from Tokyo’s opponents.
Taiwan, as expected, welcomed the Japanese plan. President Tsai Ing-wen expressed the hope that Tokyo-Taipei cooperation will continue in all aspects.
China, for its part, accused Japan of making false accusations about Beijing’s military activities. China’s defense budget surpassed Japan’s at the turn of the century, and is now four times as large.
Kishida’s plan will double defense spending to around 2% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in five years, surpassing the benchmark set in place since 1976 that limited that slice to 1%.
The increased spending will favor Japanese companies — such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which is expected to lead the development of three of the long-range missiles that will form part of Japan’s new missile force — and foreign companies, such as Raytheon Technologies, which manufactures the US Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The billionaire budget, however, has already caused some political setbacks for Kishida. That’s because part of the money that makes up the new plan will come from a tax increase also announced this Friday, but without a date to take effect. A wing of the Liberal Democratic Party, the prime minister’s acronym, opposes the rise in rates, which could compromise Kishida’s leadership at the head of the country.
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