Japan's Cabinet approves record-high budget plan for FY 2018

The current budget plan is the first since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in essence, abandoned the government's target of achieving a primary budget surplus by fiscal 2020 by opting to raise spending on child welfare and education.

From the 5.19 trillion yen (45.77 billion-US dollar) allocation for defense spending, a record-high under the Abe administration, some 730 million yen (6.43 million US dollars) will be used to prepare for the introduction of the US-developed land-based "Aegis Ashore" missile defense system.

On Tuesday, the government here formally decided to introduce two Aegis Ashore systems to cover the entire nation that will become operational by fiscal 2023.

Each system, developed by Lockheed Martin Corp., costs around 100 billion yen (882 million US dollars), defense ministry officials said.

They added that the new systems installed at stationary sites in Japan would add a new layer of missile defense along with current sea and ground-based systems.

In addition, they said that the new systems would help to take the burden off the current Maritime Self-Defense Force's (MSDF) Aegis-equipped destroyers, installed with Standard Missile-3 interceptors, and the Air Self-Defense Force's (ASDF) ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptors (PAC-3).

The Defense Ministry decided against installing the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system (THADD), owing to Aegis Ashore's cost effectiveness, among other determining factors, defense ministry officials said.

The allocations on defense spending marks the sixth consecutive year that the defense budget has risen, with spending increasing sharply since Abe retook office in 2012.

Economists and political pundits critical of the ever-increasing expenditure have highlighted the possibility that with Abe's push to revise the pacifist Constitution and further normalize Japan's military, such increases in military spending could further unsettle the region and trigger an unnecessary arms race.

They have suggested that some of the excessive funds would be better redirected into chipping away at public debt, further raising social welfare spending and stimulating economic growth drivers, among others, rather than using public funds to bolster the strength of a constitutionally unsound military.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its latest evaluation, Japan, with its debt the highest in the industrialized world, poses "a serious risk."