Recent remarks made by US President Joe Biden regarding Japan’s decision to boost defense spending have rankled with the Asian country’s government.
After Biden claimed credit for convincing Tokyo to make that move when appearing at an event in California, Japan was prompted to “make its position known” to the US.
"Despite the fact that the true meaning of the mentioned remarks by US President Biden is not fully clear, we have made known our position that the decision to ramp up defense costs is based on a Japanese decision, and such a remark [ by Biden – ed.] could be misleading", - said Hirokazu Matsuno, Chief Cabinet Secretary, at a press conference on June 23, in response to a journalist’s question to comment on the words of POTUS.
The government of Japanese PM Fumio Kishida has approved a spate of policy documents which envisage doubling the nation's defense expenditures within the next five years. And Joe Biden recently made no bones about taking credit for that.
“You know, Japan hasn’t increased its military budget for a long, long time. But guess what? I met with the chairman — the president — the vice — excuse me, the leader of Japan for, I guess, on three different occasions, including in Hiroshima. And… I convinced him, and he convinced himself, that he had to do something different. Japan has increased its military budget exponentially,” Biden said at a campaign reception in California on June 20.
At the same event, Biden also remarked:
"And guess what? When is the last time you heard Japan being interested in what’s happening in the middle of Europe in a war and contributing to the help and support of the state of Ukraine?"
Japan has been providing non-lethal assistance to Ukraine, amid the ongoing conflagration there, but there have been reports that the Biden administration is striving to ensure Japan's supplies of TNT for US-made 155mm artillery shells amid Washington's effort to arm the Kiev regime in its proxy war with Russia in Ukraine.
Over the last decade, Japan has been gradually revising its post-WWII pacifist strategy, which capped the country's defense spending at about 1% of GDP and downgraded its offensive capabilities.
Accordingly, the outlined increase in Japan's defense costs is to rise to 2% of GDP by 2027 - this is approximately 11 trillion yen ($81 billion). In particular, the new strategy includes the acquisition of Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US, and the development of Japan's own hypersonic weapons. Furthermore, Japan has been bolstering its rapprochement with NATO, with Kishida becoming the first Japanese leader to attend a NATO summit in June 2022.
Tokyo has been trying to justify the need for a return to militarization by arguing that the security situation in the region and in the world at large is deteriorating. As noted in the documents, Japan perceives China as "the greatest strategic challenge ever," and the DPRK (North Korea) as "an even more serious threat than before."