Japan’s defense ministry has released its annual white paper for 2024, warning that the Asia-Pacific region is facing “the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II.”
Days before, the ministry requested a record budget of 8.5 trillion yen (US$59 billion) for the next year to boost deterrence.
The English version of the 572-page white paper, which sets out Tokyo’s defense plan, was made public on Tuesday.
In the report " Defense of Japan 2024," Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara wrote that the international community had entered "a new era of crisis" and was facing "the greatest trial" since World War II.
Kihara singled out China, which has been building up military strength while intensifying activities in the East China Sea and the Pacific, as one of the greatest strategic challenges to Japan, alongside North Korea and Russia.
The ministry assessed that China had been “intensifying changes to the status quo by force” in the entire region around Japan, including in the East China and South China Sea.
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Japan fears that an armed conflict over Taiwan, which China considers a province that must be reunited with the mainland, would spill over to Japan. Tokyo has been deploying more troops and military equipment to its outlying islands close to Taiwan.
Japan’s defense policy is to continue building up capabilities, especially so-called stand-off defense, or responding from outside the threat zone, using integrated air and missile systems, and to strengthen cooperation with allies and partners.
“The alliance with the United States is a key pillar of Japan’s national security policy,” the ministry said in the white paper, noting that both Japan and the United States are “in agreement that the highest priority is … to prevent unilateral changes to the status quo by force,” a reference to China and Russia without naming them.
China has reacted angrily to the white paper, saying it uses China as a pretext to mislead the Japanese public, as well as the international community, and to justify Japan's military expansion, according to media reports.
Record defense budget
Japan’s defense ministry on Friday requested a record budget of nearly US$60 billion for 2025, mainly to fortify its southwestern islands against the threats from China, the Associated Press reported.
The money would be spent on developing and acquiring new drones, missiles, satellites, cyber defense and cloud-based command and control systems.
The budget has grown through the years. It was 6.6 trillion yen ($45.5 billion) in 2023 and is projected to reach 7.7 trillion yen ($53 billion) in 2024, according to the defense ministry.
Tokyo is expected to double its annual military spending to about 10 trillion yen ($68.9 billion) by 2027, becoming the world’s third largest military spender after the U.S. and China, AP reported.
While the request must go through the ministry of finance, which will likely reduce it before making a decision in December, China has already criticized it.
China's Global Times quoted experts as saying that Japan's continuous increase of military spending reflected its "militarism resurgence" and the ambition to expand its military presence in the region.
Japan’s aggression before and during World War II is deeply resented in parts of Asia, in particular China and South Korea.
Edited by Mike Firn.