The Liberal Democratic Party and Nippon Ishin no Kai began talks on revising the three security documents on Tuesday, with the size of the defense budget increase set to decide how far the rewrite goes.
The three documents include the National Security Strategy. The government and ruling parties aim to complete the revision in late December.
Defense spending, a review of the three non-nuclear principles and the introduction of nuclear-powered submarines are the main points of contention.
First meeting
The first session drew LDP figures including former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and Ishin's former land minister Seiji Maehara. Nakatani opened by calling for careful discussion because the matter concerns national security.
Talks on the main themes, defense spending among them, are expected to begin after a government panel of experts reports in late November or early December.
The budget gap
Defense spending is the biggest issue. In the 2022 revision, the government raised the five-year defense budget for fiscal 2023 to 2027 to about ¥43 trillion, 1.5 times the previous plan.
It also decided to lift spending on defense and related programs to 2% of gross domestic product in fiscal 2027, double the roughly 1% of the past.
The government now argues the security environment has grown more severe and intends to raise defense spending again in this revision.