Japanese cabinet approves policy to double military spending
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government is set to significantly increase its military involvement in the Indo-Pacific region, according to annual policy guidelines adopted by Kishida’s cabinet on June 7.
These new guidelines come in the wake of United States President Joe Biden’s summits with Kishida and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) in Tokyo at the end of May, aimed at preparing for war with China.
The Basic Policies for Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform policy package calls for doubling Tokyo’s armed forces spending “within five years,” without specifying a specific numerical target. The guidelines state that Tokyo will aim for the standard set by NATO countries by spending more than 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on the military. Japan currently spends about 1 percent of its GDP on the armed forces.
Tokyo’s military budget for the 2021 fiscal year reached 6.17 trillion yen ($US46 billion), which included the initial and supplementary budgets. If doubled this would make the Japan the third largest military spender in the world, surpassed by only the US and China.
In addition, the new guidelines allow increased weapon exports, with regulatory laws likely to be changed by next March, according to Nikkei Asia. In 2014, Japan eased regulations that banned the export of weapons, though this ban had been undermined in the past.
Now, Tokyo is trying to eliminate the prohibition altogether. Tokyo hopes this will allow it to more cheaply produce weaponry, such as the fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles it is developing with the US and the United Kingdom, as well as procure weaponry at cheaper costs.
Tokyo intends to use exports to deepen military cooperation with countries in the Indo-Pacific region, such as Australia and India. Japan also hopes to sell fighter jets to countries throughout Southeast Asia in a bid to offset Chinese influence.
The policy guidelines do not make clear where the money will come from to pay for this increased spending because the working class will be forced to foot the bill through increased attacks on living and working conditions.
The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) offered only milquetoast criticisms of the guidelines, and refrained from addressing the pro-war agenda. The CDP’s head of its policy research committee Junya Ogawa, stated: “We can spend that money in a more sensible way.”
Tokyo is using supposed Chinese and North Korean aggression to run roughshod over widespread anti-war sentiment in the public and justify remilitarization. Calls for increased spending are not new, having been part of the right-wing and ultra-nationalist program for years.
The US has likewise urged Tokyo to accelerate its plans for remilitarization to better integrate Japan into Washington’s war plans with China. During Biden’s visit to Tokyo from May 22 to 24, Kishida pledged that Japan would “considerably expand its defense spending to drastically bolster its defense capability.”
In line with this, some of the most vociferous proponents of remilitarization within the ruling…
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