TOKYO — Japan's defense budget for fiscal 2015 has edged up 0.8 percent to ￥4.82 trillion yen (US $41.12 billion), according to figures released Wednesday by the Ministry of Defense, bringing defense spending closer to 1990 levels.
While well below down on the 2.4 percent boost hike requested last August, the increase represents the third small hike increase in a row after a decade of decline as Japan adopts a more obviously assertive defense posture under the administration of the conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to deter China.
"The level of defense spending reflects the amount necessary to protect Japan's air, sea and land, and guard the lives and property of our citizens," said Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, speaking ahead of the release of the figures.
In July 2014, in an historic decision, Abe changed Japan's interpretation of its constitution to allow for limited rights of collective self-defense, meaning that Japan could can come to the aid of another country, for example, under certain circumstances. A huge raft of legislation concerning this change toward this should preoccupy Japan's Diet this year.
Also, for the first time since 1997, Japan and the US are also currently rewriting their defense cooperation guidelines to work together more closely.
The MoD will receive funding for all the major purchases it has requested to begin updating its Air Force, restructureding its defense posture to better protect its Nansei (southeast) island chain south of Okinawa, and boosting its naval fleet to strengthen its deterrence posture against the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy.
Three big-ticket items include ¥350.4 billion (down from ¥378.1 billion requested) to deploy 20 of the PC-3 replacement Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft; ¥168 billion to start the purchase of new Atago-class Aegis destroyers; and ¥103.2 billion (compared with ¥131.5 billion requested) for six F-35A joint strike fighters for the air self-defense forces.
Because of severe budgetary restrictions and the MoD's purchasing strategy of buying buys major weapons platforms in small lots, so the P-1s will be deployed in groups of five between 2018 and 2021, and Japan's Aegis fleet will not be expanded to eight ships until fiscal 2020.
The Japanese fiscal year runs April through March. The ¥4.8 trillion figure reflects the MoD's own figures for its budget request. Additional items such as new government planes used for diplomatic purposes and administrative costs associated with the realignment of US forces take the figure to ¥4.9 trillion.
"It's not much of an increase … at most, it allows Japan to marginally increase its ability to defend Japanese territory and potentially act as a more useful ally to the Americans. [The military]JSDF is buying some decent equipment, particularly the P-1 anti-submarine aircraft. The Aegis ships are also useful," said Grant Newsham, a senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, a local think tank.
However, under the headline-making purchases, the MoD is quietly upgrading its F-15 and F-2 fighters and building out its submarine fleet from 16 to 22 boats, including improving the propulsion systems on equipping its already highly advanced, stealthy Soryu-class submarines. with further improved propulsion systems.
The budget also solidifies the first steps the MoD is taking toward increasing its mobility, improving its ISR capabilities and squaring up to deterring threats to its remote Nansei Island chain. For example, the purchase of five tiltrotor V-22 Ospreys has been funded, as well as the first of three Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles. The MoD also confirmed that it will now buy 30 AA-7 assault amphibious vehicles for its nascent Marine forces.
"It is good to see the Japan Self-Defense Force and the government of Japan finally paying attention to the need to establish a military presence in the Nansei Shoto. This is long overdue. If you're not there, you're not interested," Newsham said.
Those forces, tentatively named the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDBD), should become built to a force of 3,000 force by 2018, said Corey Wallace, a Japan security policy expert at New Zealand's University of Auckland. Around 700 troops soldiers have already undergone initial training in preparation for the core group to be set up this year in Sasebo, in Kyushu, close to Saga airport where the Ospreys are likely to be based, Wallace said.
"Amphibious capability is essential and the budget recognizes this. That's a good thing. The Osprey's will also help extend Japanese coverage in the southern areas," Newsham said.
"The AAVs also deserve comment. To use them properly the Ground Self Defense Force and the Marine Self-Defense Force have to cooperate. It's rare that a piece of hardware — and an inexpensive one at that — has a strategic effect, serving as a 'forcing function' to reduce longstanding interservice isolation or stovepiping," he added.
Also part of the shift south, the Ground Self-Defense Forces will deploy the small 303 coastal surveillance unit, on far-flung Yonaguni Island, only 70 miles from Taiwan.
"Japan is adding more MSDF capacity to try to prevent China asserting sea control in the East China Sea, and Japan is demonstrating that it is serious to defend the southern islands, even if it still has got a long way to build the necessary capacity," said Christopher Hughes, an expert on Japan's military, and professor of international politics and Japanese studies at the UK's University of Warwick.
Email: pkallender@defensenews.com.
