Japan’s defense minister as a man of the turning point – politics

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Thomas Hahn, Tokyo

Yasukazu Hamada should now be a happy defense minister after Japan’s government cabinet approved the new security strategy on Friday. The defense budget will increase from one to two percent of gross domestic product by 2027. In the 2023 tax year alone, Hamada’s ministry can spend 1.3 trillion yen more than in 2022, namely around 6.5 trillion yen, the equivalent of almost 38 billion euros. And: Japan reinterprets its pacifist constitution, the government allows a preventive military strike and the defense of a prepared attack. It is a historic turning point: for the first time since the end of the Second World War 77 years ago, the island state has committed itself to military action.

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