Japan Allocates $42 Billion Defense Budget To Buy Military Equipment

The Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine Soryu is launched at a ceremony at Mitsubishi Heavy (Photo by The Japan Times)

Japan has approved spending $42 billion defense budget in a major military modernization program to counter Chinese military might in the region, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The nation’s new expenditure involves payment for troop-carrying Boeing’s Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk surveillance drones, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighters, and Kawasaki Heavy Industries’ P-1 submarine hunting planes and stealthy Soryu submarine, two Aegis radar-equipped destroyers and missile defense system development with Washington.

The budget also covers spending to relocate U.S. troops away from Okinawa island, where locals have protested a heavy American presence.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet signed the defense budget for the year beginning in April as part of a record 96.3 trillion yen ($814 billion) total budget.

“The level of defense spending reflects the amount necessary to protect Japan’s air, sea and land, and guard the lives and property of our citizens”, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani was quoted on Sunday.

The 2 percent rise in defense spending is the third annual increase under Abe, who took office in December 2012 and ended 11 straight years of defense budget cuts.