Japan is to increase defence spending for the first time in 11 years in response to a stand-off with China over the ownership of islands in the East China Sea, crystallising a harder line promised by the new conservative government.
The 0.8 per cent rise to Y4.68tn in the defence budget for the coming fiscal year from April, though relatively modest, is seen as symbolic of broader changes in Japan’s military policy sought by Shinzo Abe, prime minister.
Mr Abe has proposed amending the pacifist constitution to remove restrictions on deployment of its Self-Defence Forces, a move that would raise hackles in other Asian countries that still nurse painful memories of Japan’s early 20th-century militarism.
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