Roundup: Japan's defense ministry eyes record budget for FY 2017, 5th annual rise under Abe

Japan's Ministry of Defense will submit to parliament on Wednesday a record-high budget request for the fiscal year 2017, marking the fifth annual increase since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe retook office in 2012.

The defense ministry's budget allocation is a 2.3 percent increase from this year's apportionment and will total more than 5 trillion yen (48.42 billion U.S. dollars), as the government under Abe continues to push to expand the scope of its Self-Defense Forces at home and overseas, and press for constitutional amendment to achieve this despite widespread public opposition and condemnation.

The new defense budget will be primarily be earmarked, if approved, to upgrade missile defense systems and interceptors, for the acquisition of a new submarine with advanced surveillance capabilities, the purchase of next-generation stealth fighters, as well as to cover the costs of increased personnel.

Despite the government struggling to finance ballooning social welfare costs as the country continues to rapidly age and the population simultaneously shrink, as it grapples with public debt at 240 percent the size of its economy, which itself is stagnant, and is swimming against the tide in its bid to reverse decades of deflation, the government's defense spending is continuing to swell disproportionately.

The ministry's budget request includes 105.6 billion yen (1.02 billion U.S. dollars) on spending on an upgrade to its PAC-3 surface-to-air missile defense systems, with the ministry hoping to be able to extend the range of the missiles, as well as their precision, in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Separately, the budget outlines plans for the ministry to obtain missile interceptor systems which are to be jointly developed between Japan and the United States to the tune of 14.7 billion yen and the necessary upgrades to the Aegis destroyers on which they are deployed.

The building of a new submarine with superlative surveillance capabilities, the defense ministry said, is also being requested under the proposed budget, with cost in this department pegged at 76 billion yen.

Other prominent hardware on the ministry's shopping list include six Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets, which will set taxpayer here back around 95 billion yen, as well as allocations for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

In terms of payment allocations for increased personnel, the defense ministry is seeking 74.6 billion yen to bolster forces on some of its southern islands, as well as funds to set up a new amphibious unit in Nagasaki Prefecture.

While Abe is intent on expanding the operational scope of the Japan's SDF having made a unilateral decision at cabinet level to reinterpret Japan's pacifist constitution, and thereafter forcing controversial security legislation through parliament and into law, using his ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition's majority in both caucuses, the public remain staunchly opposed to its revision and the government's expanding military drive.

The constitution, instituted after Japan lost WWII, prohibits Japan from maintaining any war potential or for using force as a means to settle international disputes. It also decrees that the Japanese people forever renounce war.

The final allocation for the defense ministry for the year starting April will be fixed by the end of this year, following deliberations with the Ministry of Finance. Enditem