Japan's Defense Budget Hits Record High, Exposing Military Expansion Ambitions

Recently, the Japanese Ministry of Defense released the summary of its defense budget request for the fiscal year 2027. Compared to previous years, this document emphasizes "the goal of transforming defense capabilities," highlighting that the defense budget request has reached a new record high, the proportion of "new types of combat methods" has increased, and it proposes a so-called "virtuous cycle of defense and economy." Behind these seemingly professional terms lies the accelerated expansion of Japan's defense policy and military ambitions.

Military spending continues to soar—

A financial gamble on militarism

In terms of amount, the defense budget request for fiscal year 2027 is approximately 8.9 trillion yen (1 Chinese yuan is about 23.4 yen), setting a historical record. Due to a large number of projects in the summary that do not specify exact amounts, some forecasts suggest that the final scale of the new fiscal year's defense budget may exceed 10 trillion yen, achieving a 15-year consecutive increase.

At the end of 2022, Japan revised its "Three Security Documents," initiating a "jump" mode for defense spending. Compared to the 5.4 trillion yen of the fiscal year 2022, the defense budget request for fiscal year 2027 has increased by more than 60%. After the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida took office, it broke the long-standing post-World War II practice of maintaining a baseline, aiming to achieve a defense spending-to-GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio exceeding 2% by fiscal year 2025, with some voices within the ruling party even calling for further increasing defense spending to over 3.5% of GDP.

Where does the money come from? In 2023, the Japanese government broke the strict post-war restrictions and for the first time used construction bonds to support defense construction expenditures. After Kishida took office, a new "Defense Special Corporate Tax" was introduced, and plans were made to establish a "Defense Special Income Tax" starting in January 2027, further expanding defense financing. Many experts and scholars in Japan have publicly criticized that the expansion of military policies is causing serious impacts on the Japanese economy.

"New types of combat methods"—

Offensive expansion cloaked in technology

In terms of content, Japan's defense budget focuses on building offensive strike capabilities, vigorously developing new types of equipment that pose significant offensive threats, such as long-range missiles with "enemy base attack capabilities," submarine-launched hypersonic missiles, and long-range attack drones, shifting the policy focus from so-called "defending Japan's homeland" to "attacking enemy bases," far exceeding the scope of "strictly defensive posture."

"New types of combat methods" account for the largest proportion and the greatest increase in military spending. After Kishida took office, there was a significant increase in investments in unmanned operations, space, cyber, and electromagnetic fields, particularly in advancing the deployment of unmanned equipment on air, underwater, and ground platforms, and fully integrating artificial intelligence technology into the entire process of intelligence gathering, target recognition, battlefield analysis, and even combat decision-making, claiming to become "the world's number one" in the use of unmanned equipment. In simple terms, it aims to blur the lines between "defense" and "attack" using unmanned equipment, compensating for personnel shortages with technology, thereby circumventing the constraints of the "Peace Constitution" and accelerating military expansion.

Military-industrial ties to the economy—

The rapid acceleration of "re-militarization"

This new budget summary claims that the defense budget is an investment that helps promote Japan's economic growth, aiming to achieve a "virtuous cycle of defense and economy." This statement sounds grandiose, but in reality, it is systematically creating a dangerous closed loop of "expanding military capabilities in the name of the economy, using military expansion to support the military-industrial complex, and binding policies to military industry."

Official data from Japan shows that the Japanese military-industrial sector is growing rapidly. In fiscal year 2025, the Ministry of Defense's orders for surface-to-air missiles, military aircraft, and other machinery manufacturing are nearly 2.69 trillion yen, approximately tripling from five years ago, accounting for nearly half of the total government public demand orders for the year. The Kishida government has exaggerated the deterioration of the surrounding security environment, vigorously promoting the militarization transformation of civilian technology and industrial systems, replicating the "military-industrial-academic complex" model, and through lifting restrictions on the export of lethal weapons and aggressively marketing weapons to so-called "like-minded countries," aims to establish Japan as a global weapons supply base. This is tantamount to binding the entire nation of Japan to the chariot of "re-militarization," racing dangerously forward.

In the 1930s, the Japanese authorities used the pretext of "external security crises" to gradually increase military spending, expand armed forces, and initiate wars, bringing severe disasters to Asia and the world, with the Japanese people suffering greatly. Today, the Kishida government continues to expand the defense budget, enhance so-called "new combat capabilities," and promote the integration of military and economy, which is strikingly similar to the tactics of Japanese militarism back then. The lessons of history are not far away; peace-loving people should remain highly vigilant and work together to defend the hard-won peaceful life.

(The author is an observer of international issues)