Japan’s cabinet has approved a record high defence budget as tensions with China continue to spiral, with Beijing this week accusing Tokyo of “fuelling a space arms race”. The draft defence budget for the next fiscal year – approved on Friday – is more than ¥9tn ($58bn) and 9.4% bigger than the previous budget, which will end in April. The increase comes in the fourth year of Japan’s five-year program to double its annual arms spending to 2% of GDP. To defend the coasts, Japan will spend ¥100bn yen to deploy “massive” unmanned air, sea-surface and underwater drones for surveillance and defence under a system called “Shield” planned for March 2028, defence ministry officials said. Takaichi refused to withdraw her comments, and the government has maintained they represented no change to Japan’s defence policies.

Source: The Guardian December 26, 2025 16:46 UTC