Increased Japanese Military Spending Is Needed to Counter the Threat from CCP

On December 10th, Koichi Hagiuda, the former Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Chairman of the Policy Research Council of the Liberal Democratic Party and current member of the Japanese House of Representatives said that since World War II, Japan has “walked the path of peace” and that path will not change in the future. However, Japan needs to increase its military spending in the face of the “grim reality” of threats from Communist China and North Korea. Although the CCP claimed that Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic relations with Japan, but Taiwan and Japan do have close unofficial relations, and share their worries about Communist China, especially, they both concern of the increasing military activities of Communist China against nearly two countries. It is understood that Japan is preparing its budget for next year. In response to threats from CCP and North Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has announced plans to increase defense spending from the current 1% of the GDP to 2% over the next five years. This would boost Japan’s annual defense budget from the current 5.4 trillion yen to more than 11 trillion yen, about $80.55 billion US dollars, making Japan the third largest defense military budget following the United States and Communist China. Koichi Hagiuda also said Japan’s defense abilities are designed to protect life and peace and must be developed immediately instead of using five years to do so. It is more important to make it clear that Japan is capable enough to make any potential aggressor think twice before any action.