Japan Looks to Boost Defense Budget by 13% and Add New Missiles
China tensions loom over $53 billion plan, which raises funds for long-neglected maintenance
TOKYO—Japan’s Defense Ministry on Thursday asked for a $53 billion budget for next fiscal year, a 13% increase, adding antimissile systems and boosting maintenance for a military that long skimped on basic functions.
In yen terms, the ¥7.74 trillion budget request is a record, reflecting rising tensions between the U.S. and China. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged to lift the defense budget to 2% of Japan’s gross domestic product by fiscal 2027, after many years in which the figure, calculated slightly differently, was around 1%.
In the footsteps of the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Kishida has eased away from Tokyo’s traditional defense-only posture to take a more active role in regional security in support of the country’s main ally, the U.S.
The country has scrapped its self-imposed ban on the possession of offensive weapons by moving to acquire longer-range missiles that reach enemy territory. That includes 400 U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles that are scheduled to be deployed some time after April 2026. On Monday, the U.S. approved the potential sale to Japan of up to 50 extended-range air-to-surface missiles for an estimated cost of $104 million.
Japan is domestically developing a few types of standoff missiles, meaning they can be launched from beyond the typical firing range of attacking forces such as enemy ships.
The defense plan also calls for spending the equivalent of $2.6 billion to build two of a new type of ship, 623 feet long, equipped with Aegis antimissile systems. Japan had initially planned to install land-based Aegis systems but scrapped the plan in 2020 amid local opposition.
Taiwan has also been racing to beef up its military readiness, and the island’s president in August ordered another substantial jump in military spending.
Japan has been rattled by frequent North Korean missile tests, including the launch of two ballistic missiles late Wednesday.
Tokyo has named China as its biggest strategic challenge, citing issues such as Chinese tests of hypersonic glide weapons that fly on evasive paths and are hard to shoot down.
Japan is working with the U.S. on a new type of interceptor aimed at hypersonic glide weapons envisioned to be ready by the 2030s. President Biden and Kishida announced the collaboration on Aug. 18 when they met at the president’s Camp David retreat.
The cabinet will decide the final defense budget for the fiscal year beginning April 2024 by the end of this year, and it typically gets approval by Parliament in March.
Amid all the equipment, one of Japan’s most significant changes is its focus on logistics. Since its foundation in 1954, Japan’s postwar military, called the Self-Defense Forces, tended to play down bread-and-butter functions such as maintenance and ammunition replenishment because it didn’t face a real threat of war.
The military asked for the equivalent of $16 billion, up 15.5% over last year, to sustain and maintain equipment, and is increasing its ammunition budget.
Last year, Japan’s Defense Ministry said it had only about 60% of missile stockpiles deemed sufficient to intercept enemies’ ballistic missiles. It also said that in the year ended March 2022, its air force had over 3,400 cases of parts cannibalization, the removal of a working component from one aircraft to install it on another.
Takashi Fukuyama, a retired lieutenant general in Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force who wrote a book about logistics, said the neglect of supplies and maintenance harked back to the imperial Japanese military’s failures in World War II.
He recalled the 1944 Battle of Imphal in eastern India, when Japan sent its troops to mountainous terrain with food and ammunition that would last for just three weeks. The battle lasted four months. Of about 100,000 Japanese troops who fought the battle, about 30,000 are believed to have died, according to the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records.
With the new funding, Fukuyama said, “the Self-Defense Forces, which used to be a paper tiger, have taken a step forward toward a military that can fight.”