Japan continues to strengthen its armed forces for the third year in a row.
The Japanese government has approved a record defense budget of around 53 billion euros for 2025.
Japan has strengthened its defense in a hurry after Russia started its war of aggression in Ukraine in early 2022. It is a five-year program, during which a total of more than 700 billion euros is to be spent on defense.
Security challenges for Japan are caused by unpredictable neighbors Russia, China and North Korea.
Japan spends money on, among other things, buying long-range missile systems from the United States. In addition, Japan is building new destroyers for its navy and developing a new generation fighter in cooperation with Britain and Italy.
Japan plans to increase its annual defense budget to 60 billion. This would make Japan the third largest defense spender in the world after the United States and China.
Although Japan has defense cooperation with several Western countries and Asian countries, the United States is the only ally with which Japan has an actual valid security agreement.