TOKYO: The Japanese government approved a record budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Friday, to pay for everything from bigger defence spending to ballooning social security costs as inflation persists.
The $782 billion budget for the fiscal year from April 2026 will include a record nine trillion yen for defence spending, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aims to accelerate Tokyo's sweeping upgrade of its military in the face of worsening relations with China.
"This budget is the least we need to fulfil our defence responsibilities as Japan faces its most severe and complex security environment since the end of the war", Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told a news conference.
Japan has been shedding its strict pacifist stance in recent years, moving to obtain "counterstrike" capabilities and doubling military spending to two per cent of GDP.
At the core of its request is 100 billion yen for the so-called SHIELD coastal defence system, which would marshal drones to block any invasion by foreign troops.
Japan is hoping that SHIELD — Synchronised, Hybrid, Integrated and Enhanced Littoral Defence — will be completed by March 2028, with no details yet about to which part of Japan's coastline it will be linked.
The budget plan comes as China and Japan are enmeshed in a spat over Takaichi's suggestion in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan.
Beijing claims self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to bring it under its control.
The expanding budget also arrives as the market worries about Takaichi's big spending policies adding to Japan's public debts.
The 122-trillion-yen figure compares with the 115 trillion yen sought for the current fiscal year to March, which was also a record. — AFP
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