Japan "Fundamental Strengthening of Defense Capability Within 5 Years... NATO Defense Spending GDP 2% Example Specified"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] On the 7th, Kyodo News reported that the Japanese government decided at the Cabinet meeting the `Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform`, which includes the content of "fundamentally strengthening defense capabilities within five years."

The basic policy cited the example of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) member countries aiming to secure defense spending of more than 2% of their GDP and announced a policy to strengthen defense capabilities. Taiwan was also mentioned for the first time.

According to ANN, a private broadcasting network, a footnote stated that "at the US-Japan summit on May 23, the leaders of both countries emphasized the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and urged the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues."

The basic policy shows the direction of policies to be promoted in the future and is used as a major reference standard for each ministry in the process of drafting the next year's budget.

The defense strengthening plan in the basic policy is the same as the party's proposal for revising the `National Security Strategy` submitted by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in April.

Based on the 2022 fiscal year main budget, Japan's defense budget is 5.4005 trillion yen (about 51 trillion won), which is 0.96% of GDP. Including coastal security budgets and others, which are the calculation standards for NATO's defense spending, it is about 1.24% of GDP.

Earlier, at the US-Japan summit held on the 23rd of last month, Prime Minister Kishida expressed his intention to fundamentally strengthen Japan's defense capabilities and significantly increase defense spending to support this. US President Joe Biden strongly supported this.

The Japanese government plans to revise the three major security strategy documents ? the National Security Strategy, the Basic Defense Plan, and the Mid-Term Defense Capability Development Plan ? by the end of this year, and in this process, the direction of Japan's defense strengthening, including the expansion of defense spending, is expected to be decided.