Japan's high public debt will not significantly constrain its plans to expand defense spending, but its economy's modest growth potential means the country will still struggle to keep pace with the booming military budgets of its adversaries like China, which will compel Tokyo to seek greater defense cooperation with its allies in the coming years. In the context of increasing geopolitical tensions in East Asia and beyond, Japan is undergoing a very significant shift in defense policy and spending. China's increasing assertiveness in the region, in particular, has sounded alarm bells in Tokyo, with the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida referring to China as an ''unprecedented strategic challenge'' in the new national security and defense strategy it published in 2022. North Korea's enhanced military capabilities and, more recently, Russia's war in Ukraine, have also accelerated Japan's shift toward a more resource-intensive defense policy that involves higher defense spending, the...
