Japan's defence ministry requested 8.9 trillion yen, or 55.6 billion dollars, on Monday for the year starting in April 2027, its largest such request, with an AI-powered decision system, low-cost drones and hypersonic missiles. Relations with China worsened after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested Japan could intervene over Taiwan, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he will encourage G20 members to re-examine terms of trade with China.
The defence ministry requested 8.9 trillion yen, or 55.6 billion dollars, on Monday for the fiscal year starting in April 2027, the largest such request it has made. The list includes an AI-powered decision support system, low-cost drones able to work alongside long-range missiles, underwater-launched hypersonic missiles and a new unit against cognitive warfare.[1]
The request leaves many items unpriced, including missiles, drones and digital systems, and officials said those figures will be set once the government finishes revising its three core national security documents by the end of the year. The Nikkei reported that the final defence budget may exceed 10 trillion yen, citing an unnamed ruling party lawmaker, and put the whole government request at about 143 trillion yen against 122.4 trillion yen for the current fiscal year. Relations with China worsened sharply after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Japan could intervene militarily in a conflict over Taiwan.[1]
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Sunday he will encourage G20 members to re-examine their terms of trade with China and press Beijing to shift its economy away from exports and towards domestic consumption. Speaking before a G20 finance leaders' meeting, Bessent called the current flood of Chinese exports unsustainable and said the world cannot have a China running a trade surplus of 1.2 trillion dollars. Tariffs imposed since Donald Trump returned to office in 2025 cut the US trade deficit with China in the first six months of 2026 by a third from the same period of 2025, to 73.9 billion dollars, on US Census Bureau data, and Washington is now pressing for a G20 joint statement on reducing trade and current account imbalances. Bessent dismissed calls for a coordinated move to strengthen the yuan, which the International Monetary Fund assesses to be undervalued by as much as 21 per cent.[2]
