Japan approved Friday a record-high 6.8 trillion-yen ($51 billion) draft defense budget for fiscal 2023 after pledging to acquire capabilities in a major policy shift under the country's war-renouncing Constitution, Kyodo reported. The draft initial budget for the next fiscal year that starts in April is up 26.3 percent from 5.4 trillion yen in the current fiscal year, rising for the 11th straight year. With Japan facing growingly severe security challenges, the nation earlier this month revised three key defense documents, including its long-term policy guidelines, the National Security Strategy. The budget was also drawn up after the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida decided to raise the defense budget for the next five years to hit a target of 2 percent of gross domestic product in fiscal 2027. Japan has long capped its annual defense budget at around 1 percent of GDP, or a little more than 5 trillion yen.
