Japan, South Korea and Taiwan continue their budgetary efforts in favor of Defense

Like the majority of developed countries, the countries bordering the China Sea have seen their defense budgets increase significantly in recent years, in the face of the relentless rise of the People's Liberation Army which will have, in ten years time, redrawn the map of regional geostrategic balances. For the three main allies of the United States closest to China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the time is obviously not to slow down this effort, since both Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei are working in as part of the preparation of the 2022 defense budget, on significant increases in their investments in this area, respectively 2,6% for Japan, 4,5% for South Korea and 5,2% for Taiwan. Recall that the Chinese defense budget is growing on average by 6% per year, and has been for more than 20 years.

Thus, on August 31, the Ministry of Defense of Japan addressed a budget forecast request for 2022 of nearly 5.480 billion yen, or $ 50 billion, an increase of 2,6% compared to the budget of the previous year. These new credits will be almost exclusively devoted to the intensification of investments in Defense Research and Development of the country, which will increase by 114 billion yen to reach 325 billion yen, an increase of 54% in a single year, representing the most high defense R&D budget ever allocated by Japan. It is true that Tokyo does not lack ambitions and projects in this area. Thus, 8,6 billion yen will be devoted to the design of a microwave-based anti-drone system, and 3,9 billion yen to the development of a hypersonic guided shell, a project about which the armies Japanese women have great ambitions.

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