Japan Defense Budget Hits Record High for 5th Straight Year

Tokyo, Dec. 21 (Jiji Press)--Japan's defense budget for fiscal 2019 totaled 5,257.4 billion yen, hitting a record high for the fifth straight year, according to the government's draft budget for the year from April that was adopted at a cabinet meeting on Friday. The total is up 1.3 pct from the fiscal 2018 initial budget level. Fiscal 2019 defense spending includes 70 million yen for research costs related to a plan to upgrade two Izumo-class destroyers of the Maritime Self-Defense Force to de facto aircraft carriers as outlined in the government's new National Defense Program Guidelines approved by the cabinet earlier this week. With the funds, the Defense Ministry will conduct heat-resistance tests for coating materials to cover the decks of the Izumo and Kaga destroyers to enable short takeoffs and vertical landings by U.S. military F-35B state-of-the-art stealth fighters. The ministry will also carry out noise tests for such takeoffs and landings to investigate effects in living spaces inside the destroyers. In the fiscal 2019 draft budget, Japan will spend a total of 175.7 billion yen on a contract value basis related to the planned deployment of the Aegis Ashore land-based missile interceptor system, less than the 235.2 billion yen included in the ministry's budget request, partly because testing costs will be allocated in fiscal 2020 or later. In addition, the Japanese government will use 701.3 billion yen for expenditures on defense equipment procurement under the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales, or FMS, program, including 68.1 billion yen to acquire six F-35A stealth fighters and 194 billion yen to buy nine E-2D early warning aircraft. Host-nation financial support for U.S. forces in Japan stands at 198.7 billion yen, up one billion yen from the previous year. END