The new Japanese cabinet of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is continuing to escalate its aggressive military stance toward China. The cabinet has approved a record defense budget proposal of more than 9 trillion yen ($58 billion) for the coming fiscal year. This is part of the effort to bring Japan’s defense spending to 2% of GDP, a move which it has been under pressure by the U.S. to do for some time.
According to Anadolu, Japan plans to rebrand its Air Self-Defense Force as the Air and Space Self-Defense Force, as well as spend 30.1 billion yen ($193 million) for procuring hypersonic guided missiles.
If the proposed budget goes through, Japan is expected to become the world’s third-largest defense spender after the United States and China, according to Al Jazeera.
