{"id":3810,"date":"2019-12-20T15:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T15:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/?p=3810"},"modified":"2019-12-20T15:00:17","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T15:00:17","slug":"japan-govt-approves-eighth-straight-defence-spending-hike-to-record-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/2019\/12\/20\/japan-govt-approves-eighth-straight-defence-spending-hike-to-record-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan govt approves eighth straight defence spending hike to record high"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TOKYO (REUTERS) – Japan’s government on Friday (Dec 20) approved an eighth straight annual increase in defence spending<\/a> to a record high as it buys US-made stealth fighters, interceptor missiles and other equipment to counter military build-ups by North Korea and China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan’s defence budget will rise 1.1 per cent to a record 5.31 trillion yen (S$65.87 billion) in the year starting April 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan’s Parliament, which is dominated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, will vote on the spending plan next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite a Constitution that forbids the possession of offensive weapons, Japan is one of the world’s biggest military spenders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outlays on defence have increased by almost 15 per cent in less than a decade, spurred on by neighbouring China modernising its military<\/a> and North Korea developing nuclear weapons and missiles that could deliver them anywhere in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of Japan’s recent defence spending splurge has gone on equipment supplied by US defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin Corp<\/a> and Raytheon Co. Local makers such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have seen their share of defence spending shrink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump has thanked Mr Abe for buying the US equipment, helping ease trade tensions between the allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big-ticket purchases next year will include nine Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters, including six short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) B variants it wants to fly off aircraft carriers, for 107 billion yen. Japan plans to deploy them to extend the operational range of its Self Defence Forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan’s Ministry of Defence will also spend more than US$1 billion (S$1.36 billion) to strengthen its ballistic missile defences (BMD), including the purchase of a new generation of missiles designed by Raytheon to shoot down incoming warheads in space.Related Story<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan to buy US$146 million island for US military drills<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It is also appropriating funds to begin building two ground-based Aegis Ashore missile tracking stations with powerful new radars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOKYO (REUTERS) – Japan’s government on Friday (Dec 20) approved an eighth straight annual increase in defence spending to a record high as it buys US-made stealth fighters, interceptor missiles and other equipment to counter military build-ups by North Korea and China. Japan’s defence budget will rise 1.1 per cent to a record 5.31 trillion yen (S$65.87 billion) in the year starting… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3811,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3810\/revisions\/3811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}