Japan beefs up defence spending with 5.1t yen budget for fiscal 2017

Tokyo

JAPAN is building up the size of its military balance sheet on both the asset and liability sides as it expands arms sales to other countries, while at the same time the government is planning to increase the nation's defence budget for a fifth consecutive year in 2017.

The Cabinet Office last Thursday approved a record 97.5 trillion yen (S$1.2 trillion) total draft budget for fiscal 2017 within which the defence budget is set to rise 2.6 per cent to 5.1 trillion yen in fiscal 2017, where it is one of the biggest single spending items.