Editorial

16:21 JST, January 11, 2026

Although national budgets tend to be rigid, Japan’s defense spending has seen a 70% increase over the past four years, surpassing ¥9 trillion for the first time. This situation is noteworthy.

The government has included ¥9.0353 trillion for defense spending in its initial budget proposal for fiscal 2026.

Defense spending hovered from ¥4 trillion to below ¥6 trillion for many years. However, the administration of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida approved plans to inject a total of ¥43 trillion into the defense budgets over five years from fiscal 2023 amid the deteriorating security environment surrounding Japan. The latest defense budget is for the fourth year under these plans.

One notable point of the fiscal 2026 budget is funding for measures to........

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