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Agence France-Presse

Japan’s defence budget will swell to a record US$47 billion in the next financial year with Tokyo strengthening missile defences and deploying stealth jets in a bid to counter China.
The defence spending, announced on Friday, was part of a US$912 billion national budget for the financial year starting in April 2019, approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet.
The government set aside 5.26 trillion yen (US$47 billion) for defence, the fifth record year in a row, defence ministry officials said.
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The defence funding will cover the cost of introducing the US military’s Aegis Ashore land-based missile interceptor system, the officials said.
The FY 2019 allocation covers six F-35A stealth jets, and part of it will be spent on Japan’s first aircraft carriers since the second world war.

The budget is the initial allocation of Japan’s new five-year defence plan, announced on Tuesday as the latest in a series of steps under Abe to boost the nation’s military.
Under the multi-year programme, through March 2024, Japan will upgrade two existing helicopter carriers so that they can launch fighters.
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Abe’s government argues the efforts are necessary given growing defence challenges in the region, including tensions with North Korea, and particularly “strong concerns” about the expansion of China’s military footprint.
But the move is controversial, with critics arguing it shifts Tokyo further away from its commitment to strictly defensive capabilities under Japan’s post-second world war pacifist constitution.
Beijing immediately expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and opposition” to the programme unveiled on Tuesday, urging Tokyo “to adhere to a purely defensive policy”.
Last year, China unveiled its first domestically built aircraft carrier as it continues to assert claims in the South China Sea. Beijing’s first carrier, the Liaoning, is a second-hand Soviet ship built nearly 30 years ago and commissioned in 2012.

Japan’s new programme comes after pledges to buy more US military equipment, under pressure from President Donald Trump.
The US leader has repeatedly complained about Washington’s huge trade deficit with Tokyo and also urged Abe to expand the country’s defensive capacity.
For his part, Abe has campaigned for years to amend Japan’s pacifist constitution, arguing that it ties the hands of the country’s Self-Defence Forces even in protecting the country’s allies from attack.
“Japan’s growing defence budget is directly aimed to counter China’s military threat,” said Akira Kato, professor of international politics and regional security at Tokyo’s J.F. Oberlin University.
“The budget gain is also part of Japan’s efforts to buy more US military equipment so that it can avoid a trade war with Washington,” Kato told AFP, adding that Tokyo’s defence budget is expected to continue expanding.


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China-Japan relations

Japan unveils record US$47 billion defence budget aimed at countering China’s military rise

A mock-up of a F-35 fighter jet is displayed at Japan International Aerospace Exhibition in Tokyo. Japan has announced a record US$47 billion defence budget. Photo: Reuters

Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya delivers a statement during his Q and A session with journalists following a US military aircraft crash, at the parliament in Tokyo on December 6, 2018. - Rescue operations were underway on December 6 for six US marines missing after two American military aircraft crashed during a refuelling operation off the coast of Japan, the Japanese defence minister said. (Photo by - / JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT

FILE PHOTO: Japanese helicopter carrier Kaga (front) Japanese destroyer Inazuma (C) and British frigate HMS Argyll take part in a joint naval drill in the Indian Ocean, September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

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Asia

East Asia

It’s the fifth consecutive year that the government has announced a record budget for the defence forces
The 2019 allocation will cover a US missile interceptor system, six stealth fighter jets and part of a new aircraft carrier


The 2019 allocation will cover a US missile interceptor system, six stealth fighter jets and part of a new aircraft carrier


Japan

Japan unveils record US$47 billion defence budget aimed at countering China’s military rise

It’s the fifth consecutive year that the government has announced a record budget for the defence forces The 2019 allocation will cover a US missile interceptor system, six stealth fighter jets and part of a new aircraft carrier

It’s the fifth consecutive year that the government has announced a record budget for the defence forces

The 2019 allocation will cover a US missile interceptor system, six stealth fighter jets and part of a new aircraft carrier