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© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.U.S. military chief praises Japan's defense funding boost
By FOSTER KLUG TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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sakurasuki
Don't forget to praise ordinary people includes single mothers and retiree that struggling with price hikes to get daily items while paying tax for defense.
Peter Neil
I wonder if Kim Jong Un gets a commission on weapon system sales?
—-
”OK, if you fire a few rockets and gin up fear to generate sales, we’ll give you 10% on the backend.”
Sincerely,
Your friend, the military-industrial complex.
Samit Basu
Since Japan is incapable of producing weapons, any increasing spending would go straight to the US to buy more American weapons, and that's welcome with the US.
TokyoLiving
Instead helping it's own people first..
Japan governent preferences is to put makeup as the concubine of good old US..
Utterly pathetic..
BertieWooster
Insanity!
Meiyouwenti
Japan is quite capable of helping its own people while improving its defense capabilities if the government scraps the self-imposed debt ceiling called “primary balance,” a kind of pseudo religion its followers believe that government budget must balance.
Legrande
Ham-fisted 1950's escalate-to-profit mentality...and yea production of weapons utilizing various metals/plastics and toxic substances not exactly the best thing for the planet.
jeancolmar
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is playing with other peoples lives. Military buildups hasten more military buildups and increase the dangers of war. We in Japan have a pacifist Constitution that has kept us of war for nearly a century. We do not need people like you, Mark. Get out.
dan
More money poured into the American military war machine of course they are happy !! Smh.
Wick's pencil
They should instead be concerned with rising threats from the US, who always seem to want to pick a fight with other countries.
Rodney
Can he pay for my food? 20-25% up. I can send my bank details.
Agent_Neo
@Samit Basu
↑ It's still wrong.
Unlike South Korea, which can only do dead copies of licensed production, Japan develops tanks, self-propelled artillery, special vehicles, warships, submarines, and fighters with its own technology, but the most expensive is the manpower. It's the cost.
The current defense budget is 5 trillion yen.
The problem is that the current Kishida administration is trying to cover this with further tax hikes without restricting the ever-growing general account.
If he doesn't pay for austerity rather than tax increases, he will lose his support.
This is because there are many other sources of funding, not tax increases.
For reference ↓
According to the Acquisition and Technology Agency, the main items to be procured from the United States in fiscal 2020 are three F-35A stealth fighters, six F-35Bs (¥115.7 billion), four KC-46 tankers (¥105 billion), and E2D early warning aircraft. Parts (38 billion yen) ▽ SM3 interceptor missile (30.1 billion yen)
Total 420.2 billion yen
koiwaicoffee
I'd personally prefer to allocate that money to more important areas like education, social welfare and so.
But let's buy war weapons instead.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Still Putin's War. Still China's aggression against Taiwan.
Wick's pencil
Unlike the US, Russia and China will not attack any country unless provoked.
And this Gen Milley is the one who wanted to attack Iran, but was fortunately stopped by Trump, according to the infamous "classified document".
CKAI
1000%
TaiwanIsNotChina
Russia already attack Ukraine unproved. What world are you living in?
TaiwanIsNotChina
*unprovoked
Fredrik
Can we get more praise it we quadruple the defense spending? More praise please (tail wiggle)! Good dog, good dog! Yip, yip, yip!
proxy
Be careful Japan, I get an uneasy feeling that the US is planning a proxy war between China and Japan.
Wick's pencil
I'm living in the real world. This conflict did not start in 2022. Putin warned Ukraine and the West for a long time. Russia was very much provoked. The Biden admin did everything they could to provoke Russia into attacking.
Yes, I get that feeling too every time Kishida does anything related to foreign policies.
TaiwanIsNotChina
So either Japan will attack China or you will magic a China war into a Japan war?
TaiwanIsNotChina
Russians seem to have a lot of trouble identifying countries and institutions. You see, Ukraine is not in NATO, was not in NATO, and was not close to being in NATO. You also warn of an invasion of a country by saying you will invade that country, not by issuing a list of demands to a third party and leaving it up to the imagination what you will do.
wallace
If China attacks Japan then the US will be required to protect it. No proxy war.
Peter14
TokyoLivingToday 07:17 am JST
Exactly like China does, only on a much smaller scale.
China spends much more so that makes China even more pathetic right?
Peter14
Again, China produces many times more weapons than Japan does, so when do you plan on chastising China on its massive weapons buildup?
Peter14
Such a tired old refrain. Right now it is Russia invading a peaceful neighbor and China planning on doing the same in the future. America is not at war.
The current threats are from Russia, China and NK. To suggest Japan is at threat from America is laughable, and typical misinformation from our autocratic friends. Nobody buys it anyway, except other autocrat fan boys who believe anything that is anti west and anti US.
Agent_Neo
China has become a surveillance society, oppressing ethnic minorities and infidels, and engaging in territorial disputes with ASEAN countries.
Russia is invading Ukraine for territory.
North Korea has kidnapped many South Koreans and Japanese, has advanced the development of ICBMs, and has repeated missile launch tests dozens of times each year.
In Japan, which is surrounded by these three countries, those who say that defense budgets should not be used for welfare and education, or that Japan should not build up its armaments, can only be called peace idiots.
A sane person should feel a sense of crisis if there is a powerful aggressive communist state or dictatorship around them, but the Japanese mass media, which is strongly influenced by China and other countries, is not particularly critical of China and North Korea. Not at all.
Mr Kipling
U.S. military chief praises Japan's obedience.
Fixed it.
Wick's pencil
That might be true. But they had to do something. Putin knows this is a proxy war, by a regime that wants to destroy Russia. The West tricked Putin into accepting the Minsk agreement.
Putin now realizes that the West cannot be trusted, and it is up to him to guarantee Russia's safety. I get increasingly worried whenever Kishida goes along with the West's warmongering; he should stay out of it and maintain good relations with Russia.
1glenn
Putin's recent attempts to establish the Russian Empire by military means is ample proof of the need to be prepared to defend one's country from aggression.
Xi's recent bellicosity in Asia is also ample proof of the need to be prepared to defend one's country from aggression.
Burying one's head in the sand and ignoring reality is not a sound plan for self defense. if it were, ostriches would be much more plentiful.
Hercolobus
Profits galore.
Mr Kipling
Yes, but still a fraction of the cash the US spends. China is in Asia, China's military spending would be questionable if it's ships and warplanes were buzzing New York or London. Where does China have military that is not part of it's territory or "claimed" territory?
Nowhere!
Legrande
Yep as usual the neoconservative brigade all over this post lol
At this point everyone knows downvotes don't equal more sane and correct line of reasoning...this planet and everyone with it is on the road to oblivion, and you still stick to supporting the proliferation of weapons/"defeating adversaries" rather than collaborating to help each other overcome the monumental environmental challenges we all face. It's no wonder the US is breaking down into utter chaos and madness.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The intelligence base in Cuba, the naval base in Djibouti, and the spy balloons it is sending everywhere.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Why is Putin so stupid that he is tricked into agreements? How could he be tricked into agreements his country isn't a signatory of? Are you saying he should have extracted concessions from Ukraine or something?
Sort of like saying there will be no invasion and then saying IT'S GO TIME!
He could have been in NATO by now, but he would have had to not take the my way or the highway approach.
TaiwanIsNotChina
You're unconcern about what Russia and China are doing, even environmentally, is noted.
Stock market near all time highs. We should all hope for such chaos and madness.