Talks with US await vote on Tokyo's military outlay

Japan and the United States are moving to delay talks involving the foreign and defense ministers of both countries, according to media reports suggesting they would wait until plans for Japan to add $6.8 billion to its record annual military spending are approved by lawmakers.

The talks, known as the two-plus-two meeting that will bring together Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, had been initially hoped to be held before the end of this year, Japan's Kyodo News Agency said.

It said the talks were being pushed back due to "political events" in Japan. January has been suggested as an alternative month.

The meeting has grabbed much attention because it will be the first high-level interactions involving ministers of Japan's new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose cabinet was formed in October.

The last such meeting was held in Tokyo in March, when Yoshihide Suga was the leader. At those talks, Tokyo agreed to pay more "host nation support" to Washington and vowed to finish construction of the Futenma Replacement Facility at the Camp Schwab-Henokosaki area in Okinawa as soon as possible.

"The in-person meeting will likely be held after Tokyo decides in December to shoulder more of the costs of stationing US troops in Japan from fiscal 2022 in response to a request from Washington, with the ministers signing the cost-sharing accord," Kyodo reported, citing unidentified sources.

Kishida's cabinet last week approved a supplementary budget request, adding 774 billion yen ($6.8 billion) in military spending to its already record-high military outlay.

"As the security environment around Japan worsens at unprecedented speed, our urgent task is to accelerate the implementation of various projects," Japan's Defense Ministry said in its proposal.

The request, which is awaiting parliamentary approval, will be the largest military spending increase and will let Japan upgrade its surface-to-air missile launchers. The funds could also go on anti-submarine missiles, maritime patrol planes and military cargo jets.

However, although the combined budget will hit a record high of more than 6.1 trillion yen, a 15 percent increase from 2020, the military spending of 2021 still falls within Japan's mandatory cap of 1 percent of its total GDP, which Tokyo had kept for decades.

The cap had been imposed on Japan to ease concerns at home and about any revival of the militarism that led it into World War II.

But analysts are concerned that Kishida may seek to raise military spending to a cap of 2 percent of GDP, as stated in election pledges.

During a visit to the Ground Self-Defense Force's Asaka base near Tokyo on Saturday, Kishida said: "I will consider all options, including possessing so-called enemy base strike capability, to pursue strengthening of defense power that is necessary."