New Japan PM to advance defense spending target

TOKYO

Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aims to achieve the target of spending two percent of GDP on defense two years early, media reports said days before a visit by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Long-pacifist Japan has moved towards a more muscular defense policy but with an eye on China, Washington, which has around 60,000 military personnel in Japan, wants it to do more.

Tokyo's previous target was to be spending two percent of gross domestic product in the 2027-28 fiscal year.

But Takaichi wants this achieved in the current tax year running to March 31, 2026, Jiji Press, Kyodo News and other media reported yesterday.

Takaichi, who became Japan's first woman prime minister this week, is expected to make the announcement in her first policy speech in parliament today.

She will also pledge to revise three key defense and security policy documents by the end of 2026, the report said.

Trump is due to arrive in Japan on Oct. 27 in between a Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia and an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.

The U.S. president has also heaped pressure on other U.S. allies to boost defense spending, including the EU and NATO members.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Oct. 22 that Tokyo will tell Trump that it will place a "fundamental strengthening of defense capabilities as the top priority, based on the ongoing reviewing of the key security documents."

Takaichi, 64, an acolyte of former premier Shinzo Abe who had warm relations with Trump, has long been viewed as a China hawk, although she toned down her rhetoric in the recent leadership contest.