TOKYO -- Japan plans to boost defense spending without worrying about sticking to its long-standing limit of 1% of gross domestic product, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told Nikkei on Wednesday.
The country looks to beef up its defenses around the Senkaku Islands amid repeated incursions by China's now quasi-military coast guard , as well as address the emerging areas of space and cyber defense.
"We must increase our defense capabilities at a radically different pace than in the past," Kishi said.
"We will properly allocate the funding we need to protect our nation" without worrying about comparing it to GDP, he said.
The decision comes a month after Japan pledged to "bolster its own national defense capabilities to further strengthen the alliance and regional security" in a joint statement with the U.S. after their April summit.
The document was the first joint leaders' statement by the two countries to mention Taiwan in 52 years , stressing "the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait."
Taiwan sits just 170 km from the Japan-administered Senkakus, which are claimed by China as the Diaoyu, and a Taiwan Strait conflict could engulf the island chain.
Since the 1990s, the only year that Japan's defense spending exceeded 1% of GDP was fiscal 2010, when GDP plummeted after the global financial crisis. The country's defense budget has grown for nine straight years through fiscal 2021 but has remained below 1% of GDP.
That could change in fiscal 2021 if GDP drops again amid the coronavirus pandemic. Spending for fiscal 2020 came to 0.997% of fiscal 2020 GDP based on preliminary data announced Tuesday, and the budget for fiscal 2021 rose 0.5% to 5.34 trillion yen.
Intentionally crossing the 1% line would mark a turning point for Japan's security policy, and is likely to draw pushback from China.
As Beijing has grown more assertive, the U.S. has encouraged Japan to bolster not only the alliance's defense capabilities, but its own as well. The previous U.S. administration, under then-President Donald Trump, urged allies including Tokyo to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense.
The military balance between Japan and China has "leaned heavily toward China in recent years, and the gap has been growing by the year," Kishi said.
On specific areas of bolstering Japan's national defense, Kishi mentioned strengthening capabilities on the Nansei Islands.
The Nansei Island chain stretches from the southernmost tip of Kyushu to the north of Taiwan and consists of small islands such as Osumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, Miyako and Yaeyama. Last month, the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning and five escort vessels passed through the Miyako Strait , a 250 km-wide waterway between Okinawa and Miyako, before heading south to Taiwan.
The islands are seen as crucial in the defense of the Senkakus.
"There should not be any areas not covered by the Self-Defense Forces," Kishi said. "It is very important to deploy units to the island areas."
He also expressed an intention to increase the size of the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, based in Sasebo, Nagasaki.
"We will strengthen new areas such as space, cyber and electromagnetic warfare," Kishi said. "Technological innovation is advancing at a tremendous pace and the nature of fighting is changing."
Inflation-adjusted global military expenditures rose 2.6% last year to a record $1.98 trillion, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The data shows a particular uptrend in Southeast Asia amid concern about China's maritime forays, with defense spending rising even amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Kishi said the government continues to discuss whether Japan should develop the capability to strike enemy bases in response to an imminent missile launch. "There's an awareness that just improving our interception capabilities may not really be enough to protect the public," he said.
He noted that focusing on interception will become more costly as missiles improve.
On the question of whether Japan and the U.S. intend to revise their defense guidelines with an eye toward a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait, Kishi said that while there are no plans to do so at this time, "we'll need to adjust to changes in the situation and make changes as needed."