Defense Ministry wants a 2.1% budget increase in FY 2009 while people are enduring economic hardships

Japan Press Weekly

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Defense Ministry wants a 2.1% budget increase in FY 2009 while people are enduring economic hardships

The Defense Ministry is demanding a further increase in the military budget for the next fiscal year starting April 2009 in complete disregard of the economic plight of ordinary people due partly to the rising price of oil.

In the budget request submitted on August 29, the Defense Ministry demanded 4,88 billion yen, a 2.1 percent increase from the current fiscal year.

The ministry emphasizes the need to strengthen the structure to “make Japan a peace fostering nation,” which is one of the major policy goals set forth last January by Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo.

The “peace fostering nation” concept is aimed at promoting the new policy the government adopted in January 2007 to have the Self-Defense Forces take on more overseas activities as their main mission.

In its budget request, the Defense Ministry requests money for enhancing the capability of Ground SDF CH-47 transport helicopter to transport troops to war zones such as Afghanistan.

It claims 400 million yen is needed for research and development of responses to enemy attacks using Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its aim is to strengthen the structure of joint Japan-U.S. operations in these areas.

The ministry is calling for an increase in weapons systems that will increase military tensions in Asia.

It has so far aimed to purchase U.S. F-22 stealth fighters, but it now calls for 94.7 billion yen to upgrade the 22 existing F-15 fighters and procuring parts for 38 F-15 fighters.

It requests 10.4 billion yen for the development of Japan-made stealth aircraft and the manufacturing of a trial aircraft, which was shelved in the current fiscal year budget. It also requests 700 million yen for the introduction of a small unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, which will be used as “eyes” in the event of joint operations by U.S. and Japanese forces in the Middle East.

As Japan’s payment for U.S. forces in Japan, called the “sympathy budget,” it calls for 194.7 billion yen, a 1.1 percent increase from the FY 2008 budget.

The ministry requests 61.3 billion yen for the U.S. military realignment in Japan, which includes the construction of a state-of-the-art U.S. military base in Okinawa.

If the cost related to running a military information gathering satellite (65.6 billion yen), which is part of the Cabinet Secretariat budget, is added, the total amount of the next fiscal year’s military budget will be 4.95 trillion yen.

- Akahata, September 1, 2008