The Japanese government on Friday presented annual budgets characterized by an unprecedentedly large allocation to the country’s military spending of 6.8 trillion yen (about 48 billion euros) to underpin the aggressive new strategic defense policy unveiled last week and planned to counter the threat posed by North Korea and Chinese expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.
The document is the most ambitious strategic review since World War II, one that could foreshadow a radical shift away from a historic policy limited to national «self-defense», and one in which Japanese forces would end up being able to launch counterattacks outside their borders.
The new defense spending item for 2023 increases by 26.4 percent over last year Japan and represents the first step towards breaking the historical ceiling of 1 percent of GDP allocation to the military sector, with the intention of raising it to 2 percent by 2027, in line with NATO’s expectations, despite the country’s fiscal health being the worst among major industrialized economies, with public debt representing more than twice the GDP.
Among the forthcoming defense budget items, reported by the official Kyodo news agency, are an investment of 14.2 billion euros for equipment maintenance and 5.8 billion euros for ammunition. They also envisage an allocation of 240 million euros for upgrading the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Type 12 surface-to-ship guided missiles and 660 million euros for their mass production.
The Japanese government has also allocated €1.4 billion to develop two new Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers that will be equipped with the Aegis missile interceptor system, as well as €156 million for planned demonstration tests of various types of drones for practical use, including €26 million for surveillance drones.
It should be remembered that the Japanese Constitution greatly limits the operational capabilities of the so-called Japan Self-Defense Forces, which are legally incapable, broadly speaking, of resolving international conflicts through violence, although various Japanese governments have tried, to a greater or lesser extent, to push these limits whenever the country has found itself threatened by its neighbors.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
