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Japan won’t limit defence spending amid ‘uncertainty’ in East China Sea: minister
- Tokyo is prepared to exceed the 1 per cent of GDP normally spent on defence, Japanese defence minister Nobuo Kishi says
- The increased spending sends a message to the US and China, but could trigger unease among the public, analysts say
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Julian Ryallin Tokyo
Tokyo is prepared to exceed the 1 per cent of GDP normally spent on defence as it targets a “radically different” approach to counter Beijing’s growing military capacity, according to Japan’s defence minister.
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Nobuo Kishi warned the gap between Japan and China’s military was “growing by the year”, in an interview with the Nikkei newspaper on Wednesday.
“The security environment surrounding Japan is changing rapidly, with heightened uncertainty. We will properly allocate the funding we need to protect our nation,” he told the newspaper, in statements viewed by analysts as a signal both to Japan’s allies and its rivals.
Kishi added that Tokyo needed to respond to the changing security situation in the Indo-Pacific region, singling out the Nansei Islands – which stretch from the southern tip of the Japanese mainland to just north of Taiwan – as a main area of concern.
The defence minister’s remarks came a month after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said at his Washington meeting with US President Joe Biden that Tokyo would boost its defence capabilities and role in the broader security of the region.
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Tokyo’s top concern involves Beijing’s claims to the uninhabited Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. Japan administers the islands, which it refers to as the Senkakus, but China has been increasingly challenging that control by repeatedly sending coastguard vessels and aircraft into territorial waters around the archipelago. The Diaoyus, 170km north of Taiwan, are also claimed by the self-governing island.
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