October 18, 2026: Japan has recently increased its annual defense spending by 26 percent. Japan now spends $56 billion a year, the largest defense budget ever. This is also the sixth year Japan has increased defense spending, and it aims to reach 2 percent of GDP. The 2026 budget is $58 billion, the fourteenth consecutive year of increases. Key items in the new budget were improved surface-to-ship missiles and a scramjet-powered hypersonic missile. Nearly two billion dollars is for drones that operate in the air, on the ocean, and submerged. The Japan Air Self Defense Force is now the Japan Air and Space Self Defense Force a year early. Japan plans to increase naval and air activity in the Western Pacific, especially near China and North Korea.

South Korea spent $45 billion on defense, which is 2.8 percent of GDP. China, the major threat to everyone in East Asia and the Western Pacific, officially spends somewhere between two and three percent but almost certainly up to fifty percent more. North Korea spends about a quarter of GDP on the military, but its GDP is only about five percent of South Korea’s.

Japan’s and South Korea’s combined defense budget exceeds $100 billion, and both rank among the world's top ten defense spenders. These are the United States, China, Russia, India, Germany, Britain, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. Militarily, South Korea is a superpower compared to North Korea. This is obvious when you consider annual defense spending. While the United States accounts for about 40 percent of worldwide defense spending, China and Russia together only account for about 17 percent. The rest of the top ten are either American allies or friendly. Ukraine ranks in the top five in total defense spending, including donations from NATO countries, when it comes to defense acquisitions. This is a dubious distinction for Ukraine, which is using it all to repel a Russian invasion. South Korea has profited from this because NATO member Poland, which borders Ukraine and Russia, has increased defense spending and purchased nearly $15 billion worth of South Korean weapons and munitions.

South Korea produces far more weapons and military equipment than the North, and its weapons and munitions are top-grade. One side effect is that once Poland receives all the South Korean tanks, mobile artillery, and guided and rocket launchers, it will have the most powerful army in NATO Europe. This is to discourage any Russian attacks on Poland or any other NATO nation in the area.

In the 1930s, Japan attacked a disorganized and divided China but could only capture and hold portions of it. At the end of World War II most of the Japanese army was still in China, kept busy occupying and policing portions of China they had taken control of. Most of these troops were captured by Russian forces at the end of the war, and most of the rest voluntarily moved to ports to be repatriated to Japan, although American troops occupied southern Korea and added those Japanese garrison troops to their relatively small number of Japanese prisoners of war. Most Japanese troops the Americans encountered in the Pacific died making suicidal counterattacks against the heavily armed and resolute American forces. Few Japanese soldiers surrendered because they saw it as disgraceful.

Both China and Japan reformed their armed forces after World War II. Japan adopted a new constitution that prohibited armed forces capable of offensive operations. China demobilized most of its huge army and sought to modernize the remaining soldiers. This modernization is still underway because the effort took many wrong turns. Some problems stemmed from corruption, which increased as the Chinese economy grew rapidly in the 1980s and produced enough government income to spend more on, or steal from, the military. Every Chinese leader since has tried, to some extent, to deal with them, and current leader Xi Jinping is trying more than most. So far, he has encountered more problems than he can effectively handle. Xi is not giving up and is moving forward to do what has rarely been done in peacetime China.

James F Dunnigan