Most Japanese against tax hikes to fund military buildup

Most Japanese do not support tax increases to fund military expansion, Kyodo reported on Sunday, citing a survey the agency conducted, after the government
announced Japan's biggest military buildup since World War II.

Japan on Friday announced a $320 billion military spending plan to buy missiles capable of hitting China and to prepare the country for any sustained conflict, as North Korea's missile tests, China's claims over Taiwan, and the invasion of Ukraine by Japan's western neighbor Russia have sparked fears of war, Reuters reports.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said this month that his government would not raise taxes for
the next fiscal year, which begins on April 1, but would raise them in stages by fiscal
year 2027 to secure funds for strengthening the defense budget.

He said Japan was at a “historic turning point” and that military expansion through cost reduction and tax increases was “a response to the various security challenges we face”.

Nearly 65 percent of respondents in the Kyodo survey opposed tax increases for military spending, while 87 percent said Kishida's explanation for the tax increase was insufficient.

The survey also showed that support for the Kishida administration remained unchanged from a month earlier at 33.1 percent, the worst since it came to power in
October last year.

The government's five-year tax plan, once unthinkable in pacifist Japan, would make the country the third-largest military spender in the world after the United States and China.