Japanese cabinet approves defence budget of $55 billion for 2023

Tokyo: In its national security policy released last week, Japan signalled a record increase in defence spending. Accordingly, in the Friday cabinet meeting, Japan approved a defence budget of $55 billion for 2023. Compared to 2022, Japan has increased its defence spending by a whopping 20 per cent in the next year. Japan said this increase has considered the growing threat in the Pacific region given the increasing possibility of an attack on Taiwan by China and North Korean missile tests.

Moreover, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that the cabinet had approved the defence budget for 2023. Japan announced that it would increase its total budget to $863 billion. This is an increase of more than six per cent compared to last year. The maximum means that one-third of the fund has been earmarked for social schemes. After that, there has been a huge increase in defence spending and more than $55 billion will be reserved.

Furthermore, the amount for maintaining and repairing Japanese defence forces’ current weapons and defence systems has doubled. At the same time, the funds required for weapons like artillery, rockets, and guns have increased threefold. Funds needed to improve the condition of personnel in the Japanese Defence Forces have also been increased. Apart from this, a large amount of funds has been made available for ‘F-35’ fighter jets, ‘Air Defence Missile System’, ‘Tomahawk Missiles’ and the new fighter aircraft to be developed in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Italy and hypersonic missiles.

In the past few months, there has been an increase in the activities of China and North Korea and it is considered that the biggest threat is Japan’s security. Against this background, Japan has started taking rapid steps for its defence preparedness. Over the past few years, Japan has been consistently increasing its defence spending. However, through the new security policy, Japan has also stepped forward further and the increase in defence expenditure announced on Friday is seen as a part of it.

मराठी हिंदी