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Japan Spends Well on Defense
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15832 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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1 / 1989 |
2,627 Words |
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James E. Auer
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To give a simplistic answer to the question, What does Japan spend on defense? could cause considerable misunderstanding. There are some in the United States who believe that Japan, which spends only about 1 percent of its gross national product (GNP) on defense while the United States spends almost 6 percent, is enjoying a free ride. Others, in Japan, believe that, rather than contributing to Japan's security and safety, Japanese defense cooperation with the United States results only in making Japan a target for Soviet aggression. Some critics say that Japan is entrapped in U.S. global strategy.
Close examination shows neither of these extreme views to be correct. For although Japan does spend only slightly more than 1 percent of its GNP for defense, its economy is enormous. Japan's $2.5 trillion economy in 1987 is now clearly larger than the Soviet Union's $2.2 trillion. And Japan's economy will almost certainly continue to grow rapidly far into the foreseeable future. In 1988, Japan will spend about $30 billion for defense, making Japan's defense budget almost third in the world, drawing abreast or ahead of the United Kingdom, France, and West Germany. Given the fact that Japan's defense budget is likely to grow by about 5 percent in real terms in both 1989 and 1990, and that, using the standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries in accounting for defense spending, Japan's budget may soon be as high as 1.5 percent of its GNP.
The idea of Japan becoming the world's third largest military power frightens some Japanese and some of the populace of Japan's noncommunist trading partners in Asia as well as some Americans. However, third largest is still far, far removed from Japan's becoming a major military power; at third largest GNP, Japan is still only ahead of all the other countries except the two military superpowers, whose military spending dwarfs the others. Japan as No. 3 could double defense expenditures without assuming any threatening offensive capability.
Quality, Not Quantity
What is really important about Japan as No. 3 is that Japan is spending its limited defense resources extremely well in constructing a high-technology anti-invasion air-defense and antisubmarine network around its territory in the Northwest Pacific. This capability, backed up with U.S. strategic power in the Pacific that removes the threat of Soviet nuclear blackmail vis-à-vis Japan, significantly complicates Soviet military planning in the Pacific. Because of Japan's complement to U.S. power, Pacific deterrence is well maintained at present and could be further strengthened in the 1990s.
This is of enormous benefit to the United States, which not only profits immensely from its economic activities in the Pacific Basin, the newly emerged economic center of the world, but also is able to more flexibly operate its military forces in other theaters, given the favorable environment in the Pacific. Japan's benefit is equal to or greater than that of the United States, benefiting economically in a similar fashion vis-à-vis the integrity of the Pacific Basin economy and enjoying a high degree of national security despite its vulnerable location in close proximity to the Soviet Far East. Rather than being entrapped in U.S. global strategy, Japan, which has few natural resources and needs to import in order to survive and prosper, can afford to safely go about its business while devoting a minimal
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