1 month ago
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Japan’s recent announcement that it plans to dramatically increase defense spending over the next five years was greeted with praise and relief by U.S. policymakers. It intends to raise defense spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2027, or 60 percent over five years. Washington will need to keep the pressure on Tokyo to stick to and even expand its defense investment further—for example, by making U.S. military assistance to Japan conditional on continued, larger increases in Japan’s defense spending in coming years. Over the past thirty years, Japan has maintained an annual defense budget of about 1 percent of its GDP. Upgrades to and acquisition of new weapons and equipment, improvements to infrastructure, and reviving Japan’s defense sector will take years to complete, only yielding full benefits well-after 2027.
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