Why is Japan increasing its defense budget, is there a threat from China?

It is no surprise or secret that Japan’s defense budget, which has been steadily increasing for the past few years, is being increased this year as well. Japan’s defense budget is growing at two percent of GDP for the year 2024. This is a matter of concern to the world because Japan is a country that faced a nuclear attack during World War II and made a separate defense policy without spending on its military. But it seems that Japan is now fundamentally changing its defense approach and ideology. This is particularly important given the growing threats from China and North Korea.

Is China the main reason?
In recent days, China has increased its aggressive stance against its neighboring country, which is not far from Japan. Both China and Taiwan are busy demonstrating their power and security capabilities through military exercises. There is no apparent attempt to de-escalate the situation.

What is Japan’s danger?
Experts say that the way the situation is developing in East Asia, Japan feels that after occupying Taiwan, China will become a threat to the island nation, when the two countries already do not have very good relations. China will certainly try to harm Japan’s economic and military interests after Taiwan.

A trillion yen increase for the second year in a row?
According to reports, Japan’s Defense Ministry has requested 7.7 trillion yen for fiscal year 2024, which would be a record budget of $52.67 billion. If approved, it would be 1 trillion yen more than last year’s budget of 6.8 trillion yen. Not only that, the defense budget will increase by one trillion for the second year in a row.

How to spend
Reports say Japan’s defense ministry has earmarked 900 billion yen for weapons, including air defense missiles, for ships. Apart from this, 600 billion yen will be spent to increase logistics capacity, 17 billion yen on three warships, 17 cargo helicopters, etc. and to improve deployment capacity.

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Cooperation with other countries
Not only this, Japan will jointly develop an interceptor missile with the US, for which it plans to spend 75 billion yen. At the same time, 64 billion yen will be spent on building next-generation fighter jets with Britain and Italy, and the project has already been announced. Experts say that such spending by Japan should not be surprising.

Japanese people also believe that Japan needs to pay more attention to its security. (Representative photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Lessons from Ukraine
China’s disregard for many global rules is particularly a threat to its neighbours. That’s why Japanese Prime Minister Fumo Kishida, looking at the Russia-Ukraine war, says that today it is Ukraine, tomorrow it could be East Asia. This war has changed the attitude of all the countries of the world towards security. Germany is also increasing its defense budget, Sweden and Norway have joined NATO.

Also read: Why is the Japanese government planning to ban senior citizens’ bank cards?

A survey revealed that 90 percent of Japanese believe that their country should prepare if China attacks Taiwan. 40 percent of Japanese also believe that in case of increased military sensitivity, Japan should amend its laws and even its constitution. And only four percent were against it. 50 percent believe that Japan should confront China within the framework of current rules and regulations. Overall, not only Japanese experts and politicians but also the ideology of Japanese people is changing.

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Tags: Asian, China, Japanese, the world