Sanae Takaichi TOKYO, Oct 23 (AFP): Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aims to achieve the target of spending two percent of GDP on defence two years early, media reports said days before a visit by US President Donald Trump.
Long-pacifist Japan has moved towards a more muscular defence 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 on Wednesday and Thursday.
Takaichi, who became Japan's first woman prime minister this week, was expected to make the announcement in her first policy speech in parliament on Friday.
She will also pledge to revise three key defence and security policy documents by the end of 2026, the report said.
Trump was due to arrive in Japan on Monday in between a Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Malaysia and an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.
The US president has also heaped pressure on other US allies to boost defence spending, including the EU and NATO members.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Wednesday that Tokyo will tell Trump that it will place a "fundamental strengthening of defence 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.
On Friday, Takaichi will say that China is "an important neighbouring country and it is necessary to build a constructive and stable relationship" with Beijing, the Asahi newspaper said.
But she will also say that "there are concerns regarding security and economic security".
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