Military experts expect it to call for further spending increases aimed primarily at deterring China from starting a conflict with Taiwan that could also draw Japan into a prolonged war.
“China’s military activities and other actions are a matter of serious concern to Japan and the international community, and represent Japan’s greatest strategic challenge,” the white paper said.
Beijing reacted furiously in November when Takaichi said Japan could deploy its Self-Defense Forces if a Chinese attack on Taiwan also threatened Japan’s survival, demanding that she retract what it called an “egregious” remark.
Tokyo has assembled a patchwork of tax increases, spending reforms and one-off revenues to finance Japan’s largest military buildup since World War Two, which has pushed defence-related spending to 2 per cent of gross domestic product.
But Takaichi has yet to explain clearly how she would pay for a further expansion without adding pressure on Japan’s already stretched public finances.
Her government secured a record 122.3 trillion yen (US$775 billlion) budget for the year to March 2027 and later added a 3.1 trillion yen supplementary package to cushion households and businesses from higher energy costs, underscoring the competing demands on the public purse.
Much of the new defence spending so far has gone on missiles capable of striking targets more than 1,000km away. A significant share of any further increase is expected to go toward drones and other unmanned weapons of the kind deployed extensively by Ukraine in its war with Russia.
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