Morteza Rahmani Mowahed, in an interview with the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations website, stated that Japan’s military policies are moving towards increasing the budget and allocating a larger share of the military budget to the country’s GDP. For this issue to have a political and domestic justification, it warns about the threat of neighboring countries such as China and North Korea so that they can justify this increase in the budget. The expert stated: Generally, the policy of countries that are economy-oriented and their growth and development process is solid and stable, it is not easy to choose the option of war and instability, but they often seek to justify the purchase of military weapons and increase their military budget by proposing some positions, therefore, adopting this policy by Japan does not mean this country will move towards war and conflict in the region.

The former Iran diplomat in Japan stated: Until two years ago, the Japanese government’s goal was not to spend more than 1% of the GDP annually on the defense budget. However, according to the three national security documents that the Kishida government fundamentally revised in late 2022, the Japanese government was obliged to raise defense-related spending to 2 percent of GDP by fiscal year 2027. These three documents are the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Program Guidelines, and the Medium-Term Defense Plan of Japan’s defense budget for fiscal year 2024, which has increased to 1.6 percent of GDP and is gradually approaching the 2 percent threshold in line with Western economies.

Rahmani Mowahed continued: According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, military spending will reach 8.9 trillion yen ($56.7 billion) in the 12 months ending in March 2025. According to reports, the Ministry of Defense budget accounts for ¥7.7 trillion of these costs. The Japan Coast Guard and United Nations peacekeeping operations fund another ¥1.2 trillion.

This expert on East Asian issues stated: Two factors are effective in increasing Japan’s military budget. First, the Japanese government insists and emphasizes that the security environment of East Asia has become extremely tense and serious in the face of China’s military expansionism, the development of North Korea’s nuclear and missile program, and the Taiwan conflict. Second, Japan’s military budget has been ranked low compared to other G7 members in terms of GDP.

Iran’s former ambassador to Japan stated that Germany was once cautious about increasing its military spending, but in February, it announced that it would reach NATO’s 2% target. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, global military expenditure in 2023 will get a historic record of $2.44 trillion, with an increase of 6.8 percent. Japan, affected by the weak yen, also fell one place in the global rankings to 10th place. But its defense budget has grown the fastest in more than 50 years. Of course, it should be noted that the late Prime Minister Abe’s government, in a way, caused the turning of Japan’s general policy in the military field.

He said: After the defeat in the Second World War, the Japanese acted according to Yoshida’s doctrine, which means “weak army, strong country,” and quickly followed the path of industrialization, but Mr. Abe put an end to this doctrine by approving the security bills and the doctrine of “a strong army, a powerful country” that the subsequent governments, including the Suga government and the Kishida government, have taken steps to strengthen this doctrine.