AP News:
TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet on Friday approved Japan’s biggest 5.19 trillion yen ($46 billion) defense budget to bolster ballistic missile defense capability amid escalating threats from North Korea.
Under the plan endorsed Friday, Japan’s 2018 defense budget rises 1.3 percent from the current year. It would be the sixth annual increase under Abe, who ended a decade of military budget cuts since taking office in 2012. The defense spending is part of Japan’s 97.7 trillion ($860 billion) national budget for 2018, also the biggest.
The Cabinet also approved an additional 23.5 billion yen ($208 million) defense spending through March for next-generation missile interceptors — an initial cost of advanced U.S. missile combat systems Aegis Ashore and other equipment. The budget plans still need parliamentary approval…
