Japan’s cabinet approved a new $55.13 billion defence budget on Friday, marking the 13th consecutive year that Tokyo has increased defence spending, US Naval Institute News reports.
The approval of the draft Fiscal Year 2025 budget of 8.7 trillion yen comes in the third year of Japan’s new Defense Buildup Program, issued in 2022, which seeks to increase Japan’s defense capabilities in a five-year period.
Meanwhile, China on Friday launched the first ship in a new class of amphibious warships that’s equipped with an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), allowing it to launched fixed-wing aircraft.
Japan’s defense budget approval also marked the first time the Japanese defense budget breached the 8 trillion yen mark. In actual U.S. dollar terms, the budget has increased or decreased in value depending on the time of reference. USNI News reported last December that the Japanese cabinet approved 7.95 trillion yen, or $55.9 billion, for FY 2024’s defense budget. The current value of 7.95 trillion yen is $50.38 billion due to the depreciation of the Japanese Yen. The Yen’s depreciation has an impact on both procurements from abroad and also domestically, where locally produced Japanese military equipment is affected by the cost of raw materials and foreign components in the products.
Japan’s fiscal year begins on April 1 and the defense budget is part of an overall draft FY 2025 national budget of 115.54 trillion yen , or $732 billion, which Japan’s National Diet must pass. The body is expected to reconvene on Jan. 21, which is now complicated by the fact that Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its Komeito ally are now a minority government following their loss of majority in Japan’s House of Representatives lower house in the Oct. 27 election. The ruling party still controls the House of Councillors upper house.
The previous year’s budgets were easily approved due to the LDP government controlling a majority in both houses, making cabinet approval as a definitive statement on the budget.
The House of Representatives is the first stop for the budget proposal and the opposition, if united, can reject the budget and call for a no confidence vote. Japan’s Kyodo News on Friday reported that Japan Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said his government would encourage opposition members to vote the budget through. The Japan Times, however, reported on Friday that Ishiba suggested he could call snap elections if the budget is not passed or a no-confidence vote is called.
The draft FY 2025 defense budget proposal included the addition of 123.8 billion, yen or $784 million, to develop a defense communication satellite to replace the current in-service Kirameki-2 satellite, which is scheduled to deactivate in 2030. A Kirameki-3 satellite was launched on Nov. 4 this year.
In a Wednesday special press conference held to announce the additional allocation, Japan Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said that with the launch of Kirameki-3, Japan has three defense communication satellites currently in operation, but the communication demand of the military is increasing. He noted the emergence of anti-satellite weapons and said their existence is why Japan must develop a new defense communication satellite with a large communication support capability and increased resilience to replace Kirameki-2.
Japan’s Ministry of Defense in September already released the details of its FY 2025 budget request, seeking 8.54 trillion yen, or $54.11 billion. The additional amount in the current budget proposal is due to the allocation for the new communications satellite and budgetary adjustments since the budget’s creation.
The budget allocates 939 billion yen, or $5.95 billion, for stand-off weapons capability. The domestic acquisition of these weapons includes the procurement of ground-launched and sea-launched Type 12 anti-ship missiles, submarine-launched guided missiles, high velocity gliding missiles for island defense and the expansion of manufacturing capabilities for hypersonic guided missiles. Foreign procurement includes the joint strike missile for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s F-35A fleet, the joint air-to-surface stand-off missile for the JASDF’s upgraded F-15 fleet and adding Tomahawk cruise missile launch capabilities to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Aegis destroyers.
Japan also plans to build a constellation of satellites to provide target information and acquisition capabilities, allocating 283.2 billion yen, or $1.79 billion, for that effort. Japan also plans to spend 41.5 billion yen, or $263 million, to buy two MQ-9B Sea Guardian Unmanned Air Vehicles and ground control equipment and the associated equipment, while 4 billion yen, or $25.3 million, will buy six small UAVs to operate from JMSDF ships.
Ship programs include 86.5 billion yen, or $548 million, for expenses related to the two Aegis System Equipped Vessel (ASEV) destroyers currently under construction and 314.8 billion yen, or $1.99 billion, to build three 4,800-ton new FFM frigates, which is an improved and larger version of the Mogami-class frigate. The budget also allots and 114 billion yen, or $772 million, to build a Taigei-class submarine and 29.7 billion yen, or $188 million, for the research and development of a vertical launch system for submarines.
