Japan's White Paper Reveals Plan to Multiply Defense Spending Across 7 Areas

TOKYO (Sputnik) - Japan is planning to significantly increase its defense budget in seven areas, Japan's Defense White Paper — the Ministry of Defense's annual report — showed on Friday.

The paper outlines seven pillars, the strengthening of which is required to fundamentally reinforce the country's defense capabilities. The paper said 43.5 trillion yen ($322.2 billion) will be required in the next five years to achieve the goal - a significant increase from 17.2 trillion yen in the 2019-2023 period.

The development of stand-off missiles with increased range, which Japan believes would allow it "to respond to opposing forces from a safe distance without being attacked," is one of the main pillars, with the proposed increase in spending to 5 trillion yen from 200 billion yen in the previous period.

The paper is also eyeing 3 trillion yen for the strengthening of missile defense and air defense systems to protect the skies from a variety of threats, compared with 1 trillion yen in the 2019-2023 period.

The paper also proposes a tenfold increase in spending on drone development — to 1 trillion yen from 100 billion yen.

To ensure safety in space and cyberspace domains, the defense spending is expected to rise to 8 trillion yen from 3 trillion yen. It is also proposed to increase spending to enhance command and control and intelligence-related functions to 2 trillion yen from 300 billion yen.

Significant funds are planned to be allocated for maintaining and strengthening defense capabilities, including 2 trillion yen for munitions, 9 trillion yen for maintenance and repairs of military equipment, and 4 trillion yen for strengthening facilities. Some 1.4 trillion yen are also proposed to be spent on reinforcing the military and industrial sector and defense research and another 6.6 trillion yen for "other needs."

The paper pays significant attention to "counterstrike capabilities" - "the capabilities which, in the case of missile attacks by an opponent, enable Japan to mount effective counterstrikes against the opponent to prevent further attacks while defending against incoming missiles by means of the missile defense network," to discourage the opponent and deter armed attacks.

Japan's white papers come days after North Korea fired off a variety of missiles in the direction of the Sea of Japan, prompting outrage among regional leaders as well as sounding alarms in the US.

Tensions were recently kicked up a notch after South Korea vowed to bring the "end of the North Korea regime" if Pyongyang carried out a nuclear attack against its southern neighbor.

The remark came shortly after North Korean officials relayed that the deployment of US nuclear arms to the region would possibly be sufficient enough reason to use its own nuclear weapons.

The defense document further states North Korea already has the ability to strike Japan with nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles.

"Rapid progress in nuclear and missile development. It is believed that North Korea has the ability to attack Japan with nuclear weapons fitted to ballistic missiles," the paper read.

North Korea has repeatedly launched ballistic missiles that fly with irregular trajectories and missiles it calls 'hypersonic missiles,' and it is also pursuing the implementation of long-range cruise missiles with the intention of mounting them with tactical nuclear weapons.

In October 2022, it launched a ballistic missile that passed over Japan, and it has also repeatedly launched ICBM-class missiles. Such military activities pose an even more grave and imminent threat to Japan’s national security than ever before and significantly undermine the peace, stability and security of the region and international community, the paper added.

As of 2022, North Korea had approximately 20 nuclear warheads, the paper added. In addition, the paper notes the significant development of North Korean missile technology, in particular the development of ballistic missiles capable of traveling distances at low altitudes and on non-standard trajectories, as well as hypersonic missiles.