Bloomberg:
Japan’s Defense Ministry is requesting its biggest budget increase in five years, driven in part by a U.S.-made missile shield to counter a “grave and imminent” threat from North Korea.
The ministry has requested 5.3 trillion yen ($48 billion) for the year starting in April, an increase of 2.1 percent from the current budget. That includes 424 billion yen for ballistic-missile defense — more than three times this year’s amount — largely due to the introduction of Lockheed Martin Corp.’s land-based Aegis Ashore system for tracking and intercepting incoming missiles.
The ministry said Tuesday that North Korea still represented a serious danger, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s assurances the country was “no longer a nuclear threat” after his June summit with Kim Jong Un. In a series of tweets Wednesday, Trump acknowledged a lack of progress in nuclear talks with North Korea and warned he could re-start “war games” with South Korea.
