Defense ministry to seek record 5.25 trillion yen budget

August 23, 2017

TOKYO- Japan's Defense Ministry will make a record budget request of 5,255.1 billion yen for fiscal 2018, including expenditures to strengthen the country's defense in response to series of ballistic missile launches by North Korea, government officials said Tuesday.

The budget request, up 2.5 pct from the initial defense budget for the current fiscal year through next March, will also include costs to construct new submarines to cope with China's expansion into the East and South China Seas.

The ministry will request introduction of the Aegis Ashore land-based missile defense system, developed by the United States, without specifying the amount of financing. Details of the request, including the specific spending amount, will be thrashed out before the government's compilation of the budget late this year.

To enable Aegis destroyers to shoot down ballistic missiles launched on lofted trajectories and cope with missile attacks in wider areas, the ministry will seek an allocation of 47.2 billion yen to purchase SM-3 Block 2A intercept missiles.

A total of 10.7 billion yen will be requested for the costs of enhancing the automatic warning and control system's detection capacity.

In addition, 19.6 billion yen will be sought for the development of a next-generation radar capable of tracing stealth aircraft.

Meanwhile, the ministry plans to spend 96.4 billion yen for two new destroyers that can remove sea mines, 71.5 billion yen for a new submarine with enhanced detection capacity and 49.1 billion yen for two early E-2D early warning aircraft to boost surveillance of skies over the southwestern region and elsewhere. Jiji Press