Japan's Defense Budget Triggers Unrest Among Citizens
The escalation represents a dramatic shift in national priorities. Military allocations have skyrocketed by 3.6 trillion yen since fiscal 2022, when defense spending totaled 5.4 trillion yen—a four-year surge that has prompted fierce scrutiny.
Shimbun Akahata published a scathing editorial Saturday highlighting the troubling comparison: defense outlays now rival the 3.5 trillion yen designated for combating the nation's birthrate crisis and nearly match the 3.8 trillion yen set aside for nursing care services. The publication characterized the proposal as a budget of "military prosperity at the expense of people's livelihoods," cautioning that ballooning defense costs will inevitably compress social welfare funding.
The Ryukyu Shimpo issued its own Saturday editorial condemning the military expansion, asserting that weaponry initiatives embedded within the defense budget seriously deviate from Japan's "exclusively defense-oriented" policy and will aggravate military tensions.
Atsushi Koketsu, professor emeritus at Yamaguchi University, expressed dismay to media, stating that the budget proposal is deeply disappointing, as it fails to give sufficient consideration to people's livelihood and stability while significantly increasing defense spending.
The dramatic increase marks a rupture from decades of restraint. Japan historically limited defense expenditures to approximately 1 percent of GDP—roughly 5 trillion yen annually—honoring its postwar pacifist principles enshrined in the war-renouncing Constitution. However, Tokyo established a controversial 2022 target despite substantial public resistance: elevating combined defense outlays to roughly 43 trillion yen spanning fiscal 2023 through 2027, while pushing military spending toward 2 percent of GDP by fiscal 2027.
Annual defense budgets have climbed relentlessly since fiscal 2023, consecutively breaching the 6 trillion, 7 trillion, 8 trillion, and now 9 trillion yen thresholds. (1 Japanese yen equals approximately 0.006 USD)
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