Japan sees a threat in China, and therefore increases the amount of funding for its armed forces. Yesterday, December 21, the Kyodo News Agency reported that the Japanese government has approved a record military budget for the self-defense Forces.
For 2021, the Japanese defense Ministry will receive 5.34 trillion yen ($51.7 billion) at its disposal. The growth was "only" 0.5% compared to the planned expenditures for 2020, but when you consider that the costs of the Japanese self-defense Forces are growing for the ninth year in a row, the increase is significant.
Japanese f-2 fighter
Image source: defenseworld.net
The Ministry of defense has allocated 33.5 billion yen for the development of new Japanese-made long-range missiles. 1.7 billion yen has been pledged to prepare for the construction of two new destroyers to replace the aegis ground-based system. 57.6 billion yen has been pledged for the development of a new generation fighter. In addition,an additional 15.5 billion yen will be received by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which is leading the project with the support of the American Corporation Lockheed Martin. But the planned modernization of the f-15 fighters is postponed: no funds have yet been found for it. Another 119.1 billion yen will be spent on the militarization of space. This amount includes the cost of creating an optical telescope to observe unidentified objects, as well as grouping satellites to detect hypersonic weapons.
