Japan to Allocate 73 Trillion Won for Defense Budget Next Year... Largest Ever

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. [Photo by Yonhap News]

The Japanese government has allocated a record-high defense budget of 7.9496 trillion yen (approximately 72.8 trillion won) for the next fiscal year.

According to Kyodo News on the 22nd, the Japanese government decided at the Cabinet meeting on the same day on the general account budget for the "2024 fiscal year" (April 2024 to March 2025), totaling 112.0717 trillion yen (approximately 1,026 trillion won). This is 2.3095 trillion yen (approximately 21.1 trillion won) less than the 2023 fiscal year budget.

Of the 2024 fiscal year budget, 7.9496 trillion yen is allocated to defense spending. This is the largest defense budget ever, following the 2023 fiscal year. Among the defense budget, 734 billion yen (approximately 6.7 trillion won) is assigned for the development and procurement of long-range missiles. More than 80 billion yen (7.317 billion won) will also be invested in the development of supersonic guided missiles with a range of 3,000 km.

Kyodo News reported, "Next year's defense budget will reach 1.3% of the 2024 Gross Domestic Product (GDP)."

Japan plans to spend 43 trillion yen (393.89 trillion won) on defense by 2027 to strengthen its military capabilities. Annual spending will also be increased to 10 trillion yen (91.6 trillion won), aiming to become the world's third-largest military spender after the United States and China.