By Clint Richards
Abe’s careful balance of economic growth with military normalization may be falling out of sync.
As The Diplomat reported earlier this week, the Japanese Ministry of Defense and Coast Guard have made record budget requests for fiscal 2015. Meanwhile, economic data released on Friday show further negative effects from April’s consumption tax increase, which hiked the sales tax from five to eight percent. The military’s requests show a robust and growing defense policy designed to address not only the ongoing territorial disputes with China, but also potential missile attacks from North Korea. However, the proposed increases in government defense spending may appear to be out of line with an economy that is underperforming, especially as the government is set to decide by the end of this year whether to follow through with another consumption tax increase to 10 percent in October 2015.
On Friday the defense ministry announced it was requesting 5.5 trillion yen ($53 billion) for its fiscal 2015 budget, an increase of 3.5 percent. After more than a decade of stagnating defense budgets, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government has begun raising military spending annually. The big ticket items in the budget like six new F-35 stealth fighters and 20 P-1 patrol aircraft are primarily targeted at defending and maintaining surveillance over the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. However, the ministry is also requesting another Soryu class submarine, an improvement over the previous year’s Soryu submarine given new technology that will allow it to submerge for two weeks, a significant upgrade according to ministry officials. The budget also requests new unmanned aerial vehicles and tilt-rotor aircraft (most likely the V-22 Osprey), as well as a seventh Aegis ballistic missile defense destroyer that would be used to target rogue missiles from North Korea.
The Coast Guard’s request, while significantly smaller at 50.4 billion yen ($485 million), is still a doubling of its previous budget. The funds will go toward four new patrol vessels and three jets, as well as an upgrade to the port on Ishigashi Island, which is near the disputed islands with China.
Read the full story at The Diplomat