DHAKA: Japan on Tuesday approved a plan to increase defence spending by 5 percent over the next five years to purchase its first surveillance drones, more jet fighters and naval destroyers in the face of China’s military expansion.

The revised 5-year defence plan was adopted by the Cabinet along with a new national security strategy that reflects prime minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to raise the profile of Japan’s military and have the country play a bigger role in international diplomacy and security.

Experts say the strategy and the defence plans are in line with a power shift that has been continuing for several years. But Japan’s neighbours - and some Japanese citizens - worry that the new reports push the country away from its pacifist constitution adopted after World War II.

‘Many people worry inside Japan and outside that maybe Abe hasn’t really learned the lesson from the wartime history of Japan and that there’s a danger that a greater role played by Japan actually means the rise of militarism in the long-term,’ said Koichi Nakano, an international politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, reports TDS.

BDST: 1445 HRS, DEC 17, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor