As part of another record-breaking spending request on Friday to address a “severely intensifying security environment,” Japan’s defense ministry is looking for a significant increase in its drone arsenal.
Japan has doubled its military budget to two percent of GDP and abandoned its stringent pacifist posture in recent years in an effort to acquire “counterstrike” capabilities.
According to AFP, the defense ministry submitted a new budget request on Friday for 8.8 trillion yen ($59.9 billion) for the upcoming fiscal year beginning April 1.
It surpasses the world’s fourth-largest economy’s previous record of 8.7 trillion yen, secured for this fiscal year ending in March 2026.
Eighty years after World War II and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan’s constitution still limits its military capacity to ostensibly defensive measures.
But the new budget increase reflects the “severely intensifying security environment” around Japan, a defence ministry official told reporters in Tokyo on condition of anonymity.
The budget request asks to roughly triple spending on various types of unmanned vehicles to 313 billion yen.
The ongoing war in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022 has highlighted the destructive power of drones and their growing role in modern warfare.
Under the plan unveiled Friday, Tokyo is eyeing the use of drones to strengthen a planned coastal defence system it dubs “SHIELD”.
In the worst-case scenario where Japan’s long-distance “standoff” missiles are bypassed by enemy troops, it is hoped SHIELD — Synchronised, Hybrid, Integrated and Enhanced Littoral Defence — could block any invasion nearer land, the official said.
Japan is hoping that SHIELD will be completed by March 2028, with no details yet on which part of Japan’s coastline it will be linked to.
“There’s a need to catch up with significant changes in the way militaries fight,” the defence official said.
According to Japanese media, Defense Minister Gen. Nakatani agreed to look into the possibility of purchasing Turkish drones during a visit to Istanbul this month.
The administration of US President Donald Trump is also putting pressure on Japan, which is home to over 54,000 US military troops, to strengthen its defense capabilities.
In reaction to dangers like a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, Washington and Tokyo are taking steps to increase the agility of their armed forces.
Japan is also looking to boost arms exports, and this month won a $6 billion order from the Australian navy for 11 frigates.
The budget request will now be vetted by the finance ministry, with the central government expected in the coming months to draw up a comprehensive budget proposal that is anticipated to be a record high.
The Yomiuri Shimbun daily said the overall budget request is expected to be more than 122 trillion yen, a sharp increase from 117.6 trillion yen for the current year.
Much of the money will cover elderly care and managing Japan’s colossal debts, which are among the biggest as a proportion of economic output among advanced economies.
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