Japan's defence ministry seeks bigger FY06 budget
Wed Aug 31, 2005
By Teruaki Ueno
TOKYO, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The defence ministry, keen for Japan to upgrade its military capabilities and play a bigger security role abroad, said on Wednesday it wants increased funds for a missile defence system and to set up a training unit for overseas missions.
The ministry unveiled a 4.88 trillion yen ($44 billion) budget request for the fiscal year beginning next April, a rise of 1.2 percent from this year.
Japan's defence spending fell in the current fiscal year for the third straight year, reflecting government attempts to trim overall spending as it grapples with massive state debt.
Japan's defence spending is the world's fourth-biggest after the United States, Russia and China.
"It is important for us to respond to new threats and various contingencies, and to deal with international peacekeeping operations," a ministry official said. The ministry asked for 150 billion yen to upgrade and develop an anti-missile defence system, including 3.8 billion yen for joint development of a missile shield with the United States.
The budget request includes purchases of Patriot 3 (PAC-3) surface-to-air missiles, a 13,500-tonne destroyer, a 2,900-tonne diesel-powered submarine and a 570-tonne minesweeper.
The ministry wants to start equipping a third destroyer with an Aegis missile defence system, buy Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) missiles and conduct SM-3 test launches next fiscal year.
It takes about four years to equip an Aegis destroyer, ministry officials said.
The ministry wants to have four Aegis destroyers and three PAC-3 units deployed by the end of fiscal 2010/11.
Tokyo was caught off guard when North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile that passed over Japan's main island in 1998.
The perceived threat from North Korea, currently defying international calls to renounce its nuclear weapons ambitions, has prompted Japan and the United States to jointly develop the next-generation missile defence system.
To make effective use of a missile shield, Japanese law has been revised to allow the defence minister to order the interception of an incoming missile without first seeking approval from the cabinet and the security council.
The council, which is headed by the prime minister, is the top decision-making forum on security issues.
Experts say it would take only around 10 minutes for a North Korean missile to reach Japan.
The ministry also asked for 92.1 billion yen for steps to cope with the possibility of attacks involving nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, as well as guerrilla attacks.
It wants to set up a 3,200-strong "fast response" unit within the Ground Self-Defence Force, Japan's army, to cope with "new threats" including guerrilla attacks.
A smaller unit of about 80 staff would be in charge of planning international peacekeeping operations as well as training troops for missions abroad, the ministry said.
Japan has sent about 550 troops to Iraq for reconstruction and humanitarian aid in its riskiest military mission since World War Two.
An intrusion into Japanese waters by a nuclear-powered Chinese submarine in November prompted the ministry to ask for 5.8 billion yen, up from 3.5 billion yen this year, to upgrade hardware to deal with similar incidents. ($1=111.33 Yen)
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