DHAKA: Japan’s cabinet has approved a record 5.1 trillion yen ($42.1bn) military budget for the next financial year, its fourth annual increase.

The spending boost is part of a 96.72 trillion yen overall budget that also sets a record high, reports the BBC.

The defense boost comes after a year of increasingly assertive maritime activity by China in disputed seas.

The plan also approves the purchase of a range of US defense hardware, deepening co-operation with America.

Among the defense equipment Japan will be buying from the US, is a surveillance drone, F-35 fighter jets, an Aegis destroyer, submarine construction and spending on sonar development.

The Japanese parliament must approve the budget, but as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party controls both houses of parliament, it is expected to pass.

BDST: 1514 HRS, DEC 24, 2015
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