Japan to Purchase $14 Trillion Worth of U.S. Weapons Next Year... Approaching a War-Capable Nation?

Ministry of Defense Allocates Record-High Budget for US Military Weapon Contracts
Tomahawk and SM3 to Be Procured

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jinyoung] Japan's Ministry of Defense has allocated the largest-ever budget next year for contracts to purchase U.S. military equipment. This appears to be a full-scale start to the defense enhancement policy proposed by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

According to the Asahi Shimbun on the 29th, the amount of weapon contracts through U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) reflected in the Ministry of Defense's budget for next year is 1.4768 trillion yen (14 trillion won), the largest ever. FMS is a system where the U.S. sells equipment to allied countries through government-to-government contracts, with the advantage of acquiring the latest U.S. military equipment. The Asahi Shimbun explained that this budget is double the amount of 701.3 billion yen (6.6 trillion won) in 2019, when a large purchase of early warning aircraft E2D set a record high.

The main details of the weapon contract amounts include ▲Tomahawk cruise missiles (211.3 billion yen) ▲F-35A fighter jets (106.9 billion yen) ▲F-35B (143.5 billion yen) ▲F-15 capability enhancement type (113.5 billion yen) ▲SM3 Block 2A (59.5 billion yen) ▲SM6 (13.6 billion yen), among others. A Ministry of Defense official stated, “The total weapon contract amount exceeds 600 billion yen, but other paid and unpaid contract amounts have also increased.”

However, concerns within Japan regarding FMS are also rising. Although FMS is based on advance payment, there have been cases where delivery from the U.S. was delayed despite payment, or final invoices were not received. According to the Asahi Shimbun, as of last year, the scale of undelivered equipment reached 12.3 billion yen, and 40 billion yen has yet to be settled by the U.S.

Military commentator Fukuyoshi Masahiru pointed out, “FMS equipment has many issues, such as requiring U.S. technical support even for repairs,” and told the Asahi Shimbun, “If the budget is not prepared after a precise investigation of what is needed on the ground, FMS will continue to increase.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.