Japan approves record defence budget to counter China’s rising military might

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government approved it’s biggest ever military budget on Wednesday, as Abe looks to strengthen surveillance of territorial waters in the face of a continuing spat with China. For the year to March 2016, Tokyo will spend $41.97 billion, the government said, rising for the third straight year. It reflects Abe’s wish to build a more active military, with an eye on a possible escalation of tensions with China, with which Tokyo is at odds over the ownership of islands in the East China Sea. Japan is increasingly wary of Beijing, which is seen by several countries in the region as growing aggressive in various sovereignty claims. But detractors point to Abe’s desire to bolster the military more generally, and to shrug off the shackles of pacifism. The premier had wanted to alter the constitution to reduce restrictions on the armed forces, but was unable to muster sufficient public support, and moved instead to reinterpret the relevant clause to allow the military to come to the aid of an ally under attack. Japan and China have routinely butted heads over the ownership of the Tokyo-controlled Senkaku Islands, which Beijing claims as the Diaoyus, with Chinese ships and aircraft regularly testing Japanese forces.

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