Japan's Cabinet approved on December 21 a record 5.26 trillion yen ($47 billion) military and defence budget. The national defence budget was increased by 1.3 per cent compared with the previous year - a seventh annual increase since Minister Shinzo Abe took office in 2012.
The defence budget needs to be approved by parliament when it resumes early in the next year. Japan apparently feels security threa from China's increasingly assertive maritime activities and North Korea's missile and nuclear capability. But having aircraft carriers would be a major shift to Japan's postwar naval defence. Critics say the ships' strike capability would violate Japanese war-renouncing constitution.
Sherazur Rahman
sherazbd@gmail.com