Japan to double defense spending over China threat

Japan is making the historic move of doubling its defense budget as China increasingly encroaches on Japanese territory that matches Chinese inflammatory rhetoric.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan had reached a “turning point” in its history that necessitated the buildup.

“In Japan’s neighboring countries and regions, there is more obvious shift toward attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by might,” he said, noting that Japan would take a wide range of measures, from military to diplomatic, to respond to the change.