Former Japan Minister Seeks ‘Substantial’ Defense Spending Hike
Former Japan Minister Seeks ‘Substantial’ Defense Spending Hike
(Bloomberg) -- Japan needs a “substantial” increase in military spending next year, a former defense minister said, as he prepared to submit a ruling party research group’s national security proposals to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
“If you’re thinking of the NATO level of 2% in five years’ time, you will need a substantial initial budget request,” Itsunori Onodera, who heads the Liberal Democratic Party’s Research Commission on Security, said in an interview with Bloomberg News at his offices Tuesday.
The group is calling for the pacifist nation to consider doubling defense expenditures to 2% of gross domestic product over the next five years, in line with the target set by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The former defense minister described the annual defense budget rises over the past decade as “absolutely minimal.” The commission’s report -- which he is set to hand to the premier later Wednesday -- comes as several U.S. allies look to boost defense spending following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has stirred global security concerns.
Public opinion is shifting in favor of a stronger military in a country whose pacifist constitution has remained unchanged since 1947. A survey carried out by the Nikkei newspaper from April 22-24 found 55% of respondents agreed Japan’s defense spending should be raised to 2% of GDP or more.
“They thought if you took an exclusively defensive stance, no one would attack you,” Onodera said. “But if you look at Ukraine, there are countries that will attack in a one-sided way,” he added. “It’s a matter of course that public perceptions will change.”
The government is in the process of revising its National Security Strategy for the first time since it was adopted in 2013, along with two other key defense policy documents. Onodera, who was defense minister in 2013, highlighted the transformation in Japan’s security environment since then.
“At that point, China was described as a concern, North Korea was a threat, because it was launching missiles, and Russia was to be closely watched,” he said. In the LDP report “we are using the word ‘threat’ for all of them.”
The areas to be bolstered should include personnel, to bring the number of troops up to official quota levels, as well as funds to enable more use of existing defense equipment, Onodera said. Research and development spending should also be increased, he added.
The group’s report calls for Japan to arm itself with what it calls “the capacity to counter-attack,” a idea that has drawn criticism for being contrary to the nation’s exclusively defensive security posture. Given Japan’s status as the only country to suffer nuclear attacks, the group is not advocating the idea of “nuclear sharing,” which was raised by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier in the year.
Potential “harassment from the north” is a renewed worry, Onodera said, but concerns over regional military threats had deepened even ahead of Russia’s invasion. Beijing’s clampdown on Hong Kong sparked fears that Taiwan could face a similar fate -- something many in Japan see as directly affecting their own security. North Korea is also pressing ahead with missile and nuclear weapons development.
Nonetheless, substantial spending increases will face hurdles, as Japan grapples with massive public debt. The initial defense budget for the current fiscal year was 5.4 trillion yen ($42.3 billion), although that may be bolstered with extra budgets.
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