Japan silently preparing to take on China, defence ministry wants record $52.67 billion in 2024

It is no secret anymore that Japan, under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, has continued on the path shown by slain ex-PM Shinzo Abe in bumping up defence spending to touch two per cent of the GDP keeping in view the imminent and express threat from an aggressive China, coupled with North Korea that might be etching for a war in the neighbourhood. Despite its post-1945 World War II aversion to use of force, Japan seems to be undergoing a fundamental change in its defence philosophy given the existential threat from China, now that the communist nation has made its designs on Taiwan more than clear. According to experts watching the East Asian theatre, there has been growing realisation, among Japanese people as their leaders, that China’s invasion on Taiwan will quickly deteriorate into an existential threat to the island nation, given the traditional rivalry for domination between the two countries as also China, after acquiring Taiwan, getting geographical advantage to hurt Japanese economic and military interests. Record ask by Defence Ministry The Japanese defence ministry, according to reports, Thursday asked for a record 7.7 trillion yen ($52.67 billion) as budget for FY 2024. The latest episode in the Japan-China rivalry, apart from the festering issues of claims and counter claims on some islands in the vicinity of the Japanese coastline, has been the discharge of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant. China not just came out sharply against the Japanese move, it also slapped stringent restrictions on the import of Japanese sea food. The defence ministry request for the humongous budget bump can be seen this way: if approved it will nearly a trillion yen to the previous year’s budget of 6.8 trillion. This will be a hike of almost 13 per cent. Also, it would be the second straight year in which the defence budget would have been hiked by a trillion yen. According to a report by Reuters, “the defence ministry plans to set aside more than 900 billion yen for ammunition and weapons, including new ship-based air-defence missiles, according to the budget request”. “Some 600 billion yen will be used to strengthen logistics capabilities to deploy weapons and resources to southwest island chains during an emergency”. The report also adds that the money would be used to foot the bill for three new landing ships at a cost of 17 billion yen, 17 transport helicopters, and a new specialised transport team to improve deployment capabilities. Japan has also decided to pool in 75 billion yen for jointly developing interceptor missiles with the United States to insulate against hypersonic warheads, and 64 billion yen for building next-generation fighter jets with Britain and Italy, a project announced earlier. Japan has taken lesson from Ukraine War Underlining that China was not a nation to abide by the rules-based global order, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in June this year said with a “strong sense of urgency” that “Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow”. Kishida was speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue security in Singapore. Citing the Russian war against Ukraine, Kishida said “countries’ perceptions on security have drastically changed around the world”. Giving the examples of changes in military policy of Germany (which raised its defence budget to two percent of gross domestic product) and the veil of neutrality being shrugged off by Finland and Sweden to join the NATO, Kishida pointed to a change in Japan’s own thinking on war and further militarisation of its forces. Japanese people have willed against China A Nikkei survey this June revealed that over 90 per cent of Japanese believe that the country should be prepared for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, with over 40 per cent saying that Japan must actively improve its response capabilities by amending the laws and the constitution. Those who thought Japan did not need to prepare against a Chinese contingency were as miniscule as 4 per cent. But, 50 per cent people said that Japan’s anti-China preparations must be within the ambit of the framework of extant laws. In yet another telling indication of the prevalent mood of Japan, 56 per cent respondents supported the Liberal Democratic Party-led government’s proposal to hike the defense budget to 1 per cent of Japan’s GDP; only 31 per cent disapproved.