Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Friday that Japan's initial budget for defense spending and related costs in fiscal 2026 totals about 10.6 trillion yen ($66.5 billion), roughly 1.9 percent of its 2022 gross domestic product or around 1.5 percent using projected fiscal 2026 GDP. Japan aims to raise spending to 2 percent of GDP by fiscal 2027.
The Japanese government outlined in three key security documents adopted in late 2022 plans to spend about 43 trillion yen on defense over the five years through fiscal 2027. This marks a shift from the long-standing practice of keeping defense spending around 1 percent of GDP amid growing security challenges from countries such as China and North Korea.
An extra budget enacted last December, including 1.7 trillion yen for security and diplomacy, enabled Japan to meet the 2 percent target two years ahead of schedule under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office in October. The initial defense budget ratio has risen steadily to 1.4 percent of GDP in fiscal 2023, 1.6 percent in 2024, and 1.8 percent in 2025, calculated against fiscal 2022 GDP. Koizumi said using 2022 GDP as the baseline is appropriate, as it was the reference year for the current security documents.
