Nearly a hundred people, including atomic bomb survivors, demonstrated in Hiroshima on Monday to protest against the Japanese government’s plan to increase military spending as tensions escalate in the region.
The marchers argued that the Fumio Kishida administration’s decision to stipulate the counterattack capability violates the country’s Constitution, as it establishes a historic policy limited to national «self-defense».
Kunihiko Sakuma, president of the Council of Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Victims’ Organizations, has criticized that this policy «will not lead to a peaceful solution.»
«If Japan increases its deterrence, other countries will strengthen it. It will not lead to a peaceful solution.» A 2 percent increase in GDP is a very abnormal increase,» he said, as reported by the Kyodo news agency.
Likewise, Shunichi Ishiguchi, who represents the Hiroshima Total Action organization, said he could not help but «remember Japan’s pre-war history of aggression.
The Japanese government on Friday presented annual budgets characterized by an unprecedentedly large allocation to the country’s military spending of 6.8 trillion yen (about 48 billion euros) to underpin the new aggressive strategic defense policy and planned to counter the threat posed by North Korea and China’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.
The new defense spending envelope for 2023 is up 26.4 percent over last year and represents the first step towards breaking the historic ceiling of 1 percent of GDP allocation to the military sector, with the intention of raising it to 2 percent by 2027, in line with NATO expectations, despite the country’s fiscal health being the worst among major industrialized economies, with public debt more than double GDP.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
