Japan PM wants defence budget to reach 2% of GDP by 2027, Fumio Kishida, the prime minister of Japan, has instructed his cabinet to raise defense spending from its current level of about 1% of GDP to 2% by 2027. As Japan updates its defense and security strategy to confront growing challenges from China as well as the shifting geopolitical scene following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kishida unveiled the proposal to his defense and finance ministers late Monday. The defense ministry requested a budget of $40 billion in August, but the amount won’t be finalized until the government completes revisions to a number of defense policies.

Japan PM wants defence budget to reach 2% of GDP by 2027

“We’ll take budgetary measures to increase spending on defence and other outlays to two percent of current GDP by 2027,” Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada told reporters after talks with Kishida. Japan’s defence spending has been set at around one percent of GDP or less for decades, but Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party has signalled plans to boost that figure closer to the NATO standard of two percent. Growing pressure from China, including military exercises and the presence of boats around islands disputed with Japan, as well as Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, have helped build support for increased spending.

A series of missile launches by North Korea, including some that have travelled over Japan, have also sharpened views. The issue has been controversial in Japan for several reasons, including the country’s pacifist post-war constitution, which limits its military capacity to ostensibly defensive measures. Local media said one target of additional spending would be “counterstrike” capacity — weapons that can target enemy missile launch sites and are described by Tokyo as defensive. A poll published by the Kyodo news agency on Monday found over 60 percent of respondents favoured obtaining a “counterstrike capability”.

Speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Kishida said counterstrike capacity was one of several options being weighed. “This is being studied within the bounds of the constitution and international law,” he said, adding that a decision should be reached by the end of the year. Another contentious issue is how to pay for additional defence spending, with higher taxes unpopular, including inside Kishida’s LDP.

Japan’s government is already saddled with enormous costs associated with an ageing and shrinking population, as well as the post-pandemic recovery and fallout from the war in Ukraine. Hamada said Monday that Kishida told the government to find a way to boost spending, despite concerns about cost. “(We will) secure the necessary budget by coming up quickly with various approaches, instead of just saying we can’t because there aren’t sufficient financial resources,” he quoted the prime minister as saying.

According to the Kyodo poll, about a third of respondents support reducing spending on non-defense related items to pay for increased defense spending. 13 percent of respondents are in favor of issuing government bonds, and just over 22 percent support higher corporate taxes.

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Japan PM wants defence budget to reach 2% of GDP by 2027

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