April 7, 2023

Discussions began on April 6 in the House of Representatives on a bill to establish a new fund aimed at securing the finance resources needed for the planned military buildup spending of 43 trillion yen for the next five years.

In discussions at the Lower House plenary meeting, Japanese Communist Party representative Tamura Takaaki criticized the bill as unconstitutional on the grounds that it tramples on the constitutional principles of pacifism and financial democracy, demanding that the government withdraw the bill.

Tamura noted that in order to establish the new fund, the government intends to use 42.2 billion yen and 32.4 billion yen held respectively by the National Hospital Organization and the Japan Community Healthcare Organization (JCHO) as their reserve funds. He said that the use of public hospitals’ reserve funds for a huge arms buildup is unacceptable. In addition, referring to the government move to operate the new fund with tax revenues earmarked for helping rebuild the 2011 disaster-hit Tohoku region, the JCP lawmaker said, “This move makes a mock of the general public and disaster victims.”

Tamura condemned the Kishida government’s huge military buildup attempt for going along with the U.S. demand for doubling Japan’s military spending to 2% of its GDP. He said that the government in the FY 2023 budget allocated about 1.48 trillion yen, a fourfold rise from the previous year, to purchase U.S.-made weapons under the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. He said that the government spending of 1.48 trillion yen to buy 400 Tomahawk missiles and other U.S.-made weapons will only benefit the U.S. administration’s global security strategy as well as the American arms industry.

Tamura cited that the Kishida government for the first time in Japan’s postwar history decided to issue government construction bonds totaling 434.3 billion yen in order to fund the planned huge military buildup. He said, “This act totally goes counter to the lessons of history in which Japan raised funds for its past war of aggression by issuing a large amount of government bonds.”

Past related issues:
> JCP Miyamoto: Kishida gov’t should not use public hospitals’ reserve funds to finance huge arms buildup [February 2, 2023]
> Japan increases arms purchases under FMS [June 1, 2022]