TSAMTO, August 31. The Japanese Defense Ministry has requested a budget for a record 5.48 trillion for 2022 fiscal year, which will begin on April 1, 2022. yen (about 49.86 billion dollars), RIA Novosti reports with reference to the materials of the military department.
Thus, the budget for the next fiscal year will be 2.6% larger than the original budget that the Japanese Defense Ministry requested for the current fiscal year 2021.
As noted, the increase in spending is associated with the need to increase defense capability in the area of remote islands against the background of growing Chinese activity. In particular, a new missile unit of the ground Self-Defense Forces was created on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture. In addition, 130 billion rubles. yen ($1.18 billion) was requested for the purchase of additional F-35 fighters, another 10.2 billion. yen ($92.8 million) - for the purchase of medium-and small-sized transport vessels. The increase in costs is also associated with an increase in the requested budget for the development of high-tech unmanned aerial vehicles for collecting and analyzing information.
As RIA Novosti notes, the total requested amount may grow even more, since the current calculation does not include the costs of maintaining American bases. By the end of this year, negotiations on further conditions for the division of financial costs for the maintenance of American military bases in Japan should be completed. Currently, this item of expenditure is about 20 billion rubles. yen per year ($1.8 billion).
Since 1990, with the exception of 2010, defense spending has not exceeded 1% of Japan's GDP. Over the past nine years, there has been a constant increase in the size of the defense budget, but its amount still does not exceed the ceiling of 1%. In 2020, defense spending amounted to 0.997% of the country's GDP, RIA Novosti reports.
