Japan Approves Record Defense Budget as North Korea Looms

Long-range missiles and new missile defense shield included
Budget edges up to 5.2t yen in sixth straight increase

A Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopter flies during a live fire exercise at the foot of Mount Fuji in the Hataoka district of the East Fuji Maneuver Area in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan, on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016. In a further shift in Japan's pacifist postwar security policy, the military will begin training to carry out new missions overseas.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

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By Isabel Reynolds

December 22, 2017 at 1:22 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Japan’s cabinet approved a record defense budget of about 5.19 trillion yen ($46 billion), as the nation looks to bolster its capabilities amid North Korea’s growing missile and nuclear weapon threats.

A third layer of ballistic-missile defense and Japan’s first long-range missiles are on the shopping list. North Korea detonated its sixth -- and most powerful -- nuclear device in September, and late last month launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile that it claimed completed its nuclear force.