Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) unveiled its manifesto for an October 31 election on Tuesday. Most notably, for the first time, it included a long-term goal of spending 2% of the country’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is usually about $100 billion or more, on military upkeep.
“We are demonstrating our resolve to defend the Japanese people’s lives, property, territory, territorial waters, territorial airspace, sovereignty and national honour,” Sanae Takaichi, the party’s policy chief said at a press conference. “We will offer policies that will result in firm diplomacy and stronger defence capacity,” he added.
Currently, the Japanese defence ministry is asking for around $50 billion for the coming fiscal year from April.
While experts do not expect the new Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, to double military spending anytime soon, courtesy of a pandemic-battered economy, the pledge is a hint that Tokyo could eventually abandon its commitment to keep military budgets within 1% of GDP. Doing so would put it on par with members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
The revelation comes after the United States (US) under the Trump administration pushed Japan to increase its defence expenditure and shoulder more responsibility for its own defence. The Trump administration had specifically urged Japan to introduce a four-fold increase to maintain US troops on its soil.
In view of strengthening its defence, the LDP also proposed last September that Japan consider “possession of the ability to intercept ballistic and other missiles even in the territory of an opponent.” The plan to revise its defence missile policy was controversial, owing to Japan’s war-renouncing Constitution, which advocates for a defence-oriented policy.
In the face of rising aggression from China and North Korea in the region, Japan has also focused on strengthening its defence ties with other powers. In January, defence minister Nobuo Kishi held a teleconference with his French counterpart Florence Parly and the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace.
The ministers reaffirmed their “continued close cooperation” on several regional issues, including developments in the East and the South China Seas, where there is a growing presence of Chinese fishing and military vessels, and the development of artificial islands.
In the same month, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi addressed the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council, wherein he promoted Tokyo’s vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific.
In addition, the LDP’s pledge also focuses on ending the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding the middle class. “We would like to show solid measures and appeal to the people, first, how to confront the coronavirus and to bring peace of mind and hope to the people,” Takaichi said.
Japan Makes Unprecedented Pledge to Double Defence Spending
For the first time, it included a long-term goal of spending 2% of the country’s annual GDP, which is usually about $100 billion or more, on military upkeep.
October 14, 2021
SOURCE: KYODO