Record Japanese defense budget: Japan maintains its status as a pivotal country in Trump’s Pacific defense vision

On December 27, 2024, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s cabinet presented a draft budget for 2025, which envisages record defense spending of $55 billion, which is 10.1% higher than in 2024.

This is a continuation of the 13-year trend of increasing the Japanese defense budget, which should reach 2% of GDP by 2027.

At the same time, Tokyo is open to negotiations with Donald Trump on defense spending above 2% of GDP, which is necessary to maintain the security of the First Island Chain, the core of the US lattice security system in the Indo-Pacific.