As China and the United States continue to seek economic advantages, one over the other, Japan has greatly complicated Beijing’s political-economic calculations. Tokyo’s huge increase in defense spending and its decision to allow its armed forces more latitude to maneuver steepen both Beijing’s military and its economic challenges and at an especially difficult time for China’s leadership.
Japan assiduously claims to continue adherence to the pacifist constitution it adopted in 1945 at the end of the Second World War. It has, however, decided to make some radical reinterpretations. According to The U.S. Naval Institute, Japan has increased its defense spending every year for the past twelve and in the last year increased military outlays by a whopping 16% to the equivalent of $56 billion.
These outlays are fall far short of China’s military budget, which, according to China’s Defense Ministry verges on the equivalent of $300 billion, much less the United States, which according to the budget of the United States stands at over $850 billion. Japan’s figure is nonetheless substantive, and if indications from the government in Tokyo are correct, just the start of large increases for the next few years. It is certainly enough to capture Beijing’s attention, not the least because it is clearly aimed at Chinese ambitions. In the words of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, “[W]e hope to contribute to defend a free and open international order based in the rule of law and to achieve peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.”