Japan’s defence budget plans may stir fear in Asia

Teruaki Ueno

Japan said on Friday it plans to buy a mid-air refuelling plane and boost spending for joint research with Washington on a missile defence system next year, in a move that could infuriate some of its Asian neighbours.

The ambitious scheme comes at a time when Japan’s ties with China and South Korea are frayed over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visit to a war shrine and a history textbook that critics say glosses over Tokyo’s wartime aggression.

The defence agency said it would try to secure a 5.02 trillion yen ($42.05 billion) budget for the fiscal year beginning next April, a rise of 1.8 per cent from this year.

Japan’s defence spending ranks among the world’s highest.

The budget request would need to be approved by the government as part of its budget bill in December and then enacted by Parliament by the end of March.

The agency wants to spend some 816 billion yen to renovate and modernise military hardware in the next fiscal year.

It included a proposed controversial purchase of one air-borne refuelling plane for 27.5 billion yen. The agency plans to acquire three more mid-air refuelling aircraft in the period to March 2006.

The planned procurement of the sophisticated aircraft could stir concern in neighbouring China and North Korea because it would increase the range of fighter planes to almost all of East Asia, analysts said.

To further infuriate China, North Korea and Russia, the agency requested that 8.3 billion yen be earmarked for a joint study with the US on theatre missile defence (TMD) aimed at shielding US troops in northeast Asia and allies such as Japan. The requested amount was more than double that being spent in the current fiscal year.

“This shows Japan becoming more aggressive in its military strategy under the umbrella of the Japan-US Alliance,” said military analyst Haruo Fuji in Tokyo.

Tokyo and Washington boosted their military alliance in 1998, setting off fears in China that the pact was designed to protect Taiwan. With a wary eye on North Korea’s advancing ballistic missile programme, Tokyo and Washington signed an agreement in 1999 to begin sharing technology on the ballistic missile defence.

Taiwan’s military said this month it would leave open the option of joining the US and Japan in possible plans to develop the regional anti-missile system.

Any perceived move by Japan to build up its military, known as the Self-Defence Forces (SDF), courts controversy in Asia because of the country’s wartime imperialism and at home because of its pacifist constitution.

The budget request also included proposed purchases of one 7,700-tonne destroyer, one 2,700-tonne diesel submarine, one 510-tonne mine sweeper, and seven patrol helicopters.

The Army wants funds to buy 18 tanks, three missile launchers, two fighter helicopters and two transport helicopters.

Apart from the mid-air refuelling aircraft, the Air force’s shopping request includes eight F-2 support fighters and two transport helicopters.

-- Reuters