Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday that he expects the next general election to come before a possible increase in defense spending, without specifying the date.
«We are going to ask the people to shoulder an additional burden starting at an appropriate time between 2024 and 2027. We will decide the starting date, but I think there will be an election before that,» Kishida explained in an interview with Japanese media.
The Japanese government last 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 aggressive new strategic defense policy planned to counter the threat posed by North Korea and China’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.
The document is the most ambitious strategic review since World War II, one that could foreshadow a radical shift from a historic policy limited to national «self-defense», and whereby Japanese forces would end up being able to launch counterattacks outside their borders.
The new defense spending envelope for 2023 is up 26.4 percent from 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.
This announcement has met with resistance among citizens, as it is intended to finance an unprecedented expansion of defense spending. In fact, atomic bomb survivors demonstrated in Hiroshima on Monday to protest against the government’s plan.
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.» «Increased military spending «will not lead to a peaceful solution,» the protesters criticized.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
