Tokyo, Dec. 28 -- The Japanese government has recently approved a draft budget for fiscal 2026, with defence spending set at about 9.04 trillion yen (about 58 billion U.S. dollars), marking a new record high and sparking public concern.
An editorial published on Saturday by Japan's Shimbun Akahata noted that the country's defence budget stood at 5.4 trillion yen in fiscal 2022 and has surged by 3.6 trillion yen in just four years.
The newspaper said the latest figure is comparable to the 3.5 trillion yen allocated for measures to address the declining birthrate and the 3.8 trillion yen earmarked for nursing care payments in the budget proposal, warning that rising military spending will inevitably squeeze livelihood-related expenditures, ...