TOKYO, Dec. 24 (BNA) The government of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday approved record defense spending with a tenth consecutive annual increase in 2022.
The budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1 will rise 1.1% to 5.4 trillion yen ($47.18 billion), less than a quarter of China’s military budget this year according to official Beijing data, according to the Associated Press.
The higher spending plan follows a meeting in April between US President Joe Biden and then Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, in which Suga pledged to bolster his country’s defense capability in light of a more challenging regional security environment.
The big-ticket items in the draft budget include 128 billion yen for 12 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 stealth fighters, four of which will be short take-off and vertical landing models operating from converted helicopter carriers.
The Defense Ministry has also allocated 86 billion yen in next year’s budget to develop the first new domestic jet fighter in three decades. The project, expected to be completed in the 2030s, is being led by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
The ministry is also allocating 34 billion yen to bolster defenses against cyberattacks, and 79 billion yen to space-related projects, such as satellites and lasers to track targets outside the atmosphere.
The draft budget has yet to be passed in parliament, where the Kishida ruling bloc has a majority, for its enactment.
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