Cabinet OKs record military budget
TOKYO: Japan’s cabinet approved the country’s largest ever defence budget yesterday, including plans to buy surveillance aircraft, drones and F-35 fighter jets to help counter China’s rising assertiveness in the region.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet endorsed a nearly 5 trillion yen (1.4 trillion baht) defence budget for the year beginning in April as part of a record 96.3 trillion yen total budget.
The budget must still be approved by parliament, but Mr Abe’s coalition holds majorities in both houses. The 2% rise in defence spending is the third annual increase under Mr Abe, who took office in December 2012 and ended 11 straight years of defence budget cuts.
The increase mainly covers new equipment, including P-1 surveillance aircraft, F-35 fighter jets and amphibious vehicles for a new unit similar to the US Marine Corps. The aim is to boost Japan’s capacity to defend uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that it controls but which are also claimed by China.
China yesterday said that it is keeping a close eye on Japan. “We hope that the Japanese side will regard history as a mirror and follow the path of peaceful development and play a constructive role to promote regional peace and stability,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said during a regular news briefing.
The 2015 budget also covers the cost of purchasing parts of “Global Hawk” drones, planned for deployment in 2019, two Aegis radar-equipped destroyers and a missile defence system development with Washington.
Mr Abe favors a stronger role for Japan’s military, despite a commitment to pacifism enshrined in the US-inspired constitution drawn up after the country’s defeat in World War II.
Japan’s defence guidelines were revised in December 2013 as tensions rose over the East China Sea islands.