Japan Seeks Record Defense Budget Amid Threats from China, North Korea

Members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) bring down the Japanese national flag in the early evening, at the JGSDF Miyako camp on Miyako Island, Okinawa prefecture, Japan, on April 20, 2022. Issei Kato/Reuters

Japan’s defense ministry is submitting a record spending request as part of a larger plan that will double Japan’s total defense spending over five years.

The ministry’s FY24 request for more than $52 billion would bring the Pacific nation closer to realizing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s plan to bring defense spending up to a total of two percent of Japan’s gross domestic product in the coming years.