Japan to Spend $240 Billion on Military Expansion
Japan’s government has approved a significant military budget increase that will provide the East Asian nation with the capabilities to attack foreign-enemy bases for the first time since the end of World War II.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet made the decision on Tuesday, raising military spending substantially to $240 billion over the next five years. A large portion of those funds will be spent on weapons made in the United States, a move that has been urged by President Donald Trump.
Previously, the government had ordered 42 of the Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jets, but the new spending plan has increased that order to 147. The spending plans also call for Japan’s first aircraft carrier as well as long-range cruise missiles, giving the country the ability to strike distant enemy targets.
Fellow Asian nations, including U.S. rivals China and North Korea as well as close Washington ally South Korea, have expressed their concern, however. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Noh Kyu-duk urged Japan to follow the “spirit of its pacifist Constitution.”
https://www.newsweek.com/japan-military-wwii-attack-enemy-bases-1264199