Faced with the Chinese threat, Japan doubles its military budget

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ARMY LETTER. China’s aggressiveness towards Taiwan, even more than Kim Jong-un’s ballistic and nuclear bravado, has long worried Japan.

By Jean Guisnel

Dn an unprecedented change of direction, Japan has just formalized its decision to double its military budget, already equivalent to that of France, while it finances neither foreign operations nor nuclear armament. Endowed in 1947 with a “pacifist” Constitution dictated by the United States, Japan claims not to have an army, but a “self-defense force”. He does not only play on words, because his army like his navy leaves the archipelago only exceptionally.

It is therefore good to a major evolution that we assist. This decision had been in preparation for years on a consensus basis among the Japanese political class and was formalized by the publication of a new version of the national defense strategy. This is now primarily aimed at…

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