Building Up Defense Capability
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi argues that the Lower House election on February 8 th will be a referendum for her premiership. She advocates mobilization of national budget represented by her slogan, “responsible and proactive public finances,” and nationalistic foreign and security policies called “strong Japan.” She is going to build up security capability of Japan through accumulation of defense budget, if she is reelected as the prime minister in the general election. In her speech at extraordinary session of the Diet last fall, Takaichi proposed revision of defense plan to increase defense budget to the level of over 2 percent of GDP beyond the line drawn by former prime minister Fumio Kishida, which would be raised up to 2 percent by FY2027. It was stemming from request of the United States. U.S. National Defense Strategy demands its allies 5 percent of defense spending, which would be broken down to 3.5 percent for core military spending and 1.5 percent fo...