Japan’s Defense Ministry said Sept. 30 its request for funding for the fiscal year from next March is virtually unchanged from the current year as the country faces China’s military buildup while trying to rein in massive public debt.
The ministry said it requested 4.69 trillion yen ($61 billion) in budget appropriations for 2012/13, up 0.6 percent from this year’s actual budget.
Its shopping list for the new year includes a 119 billion yen destroyer, 56.5 billion yen submarine and four next-generation combat planes, the first batch of about 40 fighter jets that will replace aging F-4 Phantoms.
Japan plans to choose its next-generation fighter jet by December. The choice is between Boeing’s F/A 18 Super Hornet, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Eurofighter Typhoon made by a consortium of European countries.
China recently started sea trials for its first aircraft carrier and is developing radar-evading combat jets, unnerving its neighbors, some of which have bitter territorial disputes with the world’s second-largest economy.
While China’s defense budget has shot up nearly 70% over the past five years, that of Japan, which is constrained by a public debt twice the size of its $5 trillion economy, has fallen 3% over that period, the defense white paper said. The submission of the budget request marks the start of haggling between the Defense and Finance Ministries. The 2012/13 budget will likely be finalized around the end of the year.
Last year, the Defense Ministry initially requested a 0.6 percent annual increase in its 2011/12 budget, but funding was eventually shaved by 0.4 percent.
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