Japanese Cabinet OKs Higher Defense Budget

The Cabinet voted today to boost defense spending above the decade-old self-imposed ceiling of 1% of gross national product, prompting praise from the U.S. military but causing the domestic opposition to warn against a new militarism.

The Cabinet was approving a decision made late Monday by leaders of the governing Liberal Democratic Party to increase the 1987 military budget by 5.2% to $21.9 billion.

The figure represents 1.004% of GNP, while defense spending this fiscal year was 0.993% of GNP.

The Diet, Japan’s Parliament, is controlled by the governing party and is expected to approve the budget before the new fiscal year begins April 1.

‘Couldn’t Be Helped’

Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, was quoted today as saying that breaking the ceiling “couldn’t be helped in order to improve the capability and labor conditions” of the defense forces.

The Kyodo News Service said that when asked if the budget would invite accusations Japan is militarizing, Nakasone replied, “There is no possibility” the country will become a military power.

Defense Agency chief Yuko Kurihara told reporters, “We tried to keep defense spending within the 1% limit, but the economic growth rate has slowed down.” A faster growing GNP would have given Japan more leeway to remain within the old limit.

“On the other hand, we must continue our defense buildup as planned,” Kurihara said. “We hope to have the understanding of the public.”

Military spending is a sensitive issue in Japan, where a constitution adopted after World War II bans war as an instrument of foreign policy.

The Cabinet set the 1% ceiling in 1976 in response to criticism that military spending was increasing rapidly. The ceiling has been adhered to by all Japanese governments since then.

But the United States, which has a mutual defense treaty with Japan and stations about 61,000 troops here, in recent years has urged Japan to build up its defensive strength more rapidly.