© AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi

TOKYO, December 16. /TASS/. The government of Japan expects to lay on defense in the budget for the 2018 fiscal year (starts 1 April 2018 – approx. TASS) record $ 5.19 trillion yen (about $46.1 billion at current exchange rates). These figures are contained in the draft budget for the following year, reports of 16 December Nikkei newspaper.

This amount is about 70 billion yen (about $624 million at current exchange rates) more than a year earlier. Most of the additional costs, as noted, will go to the preliminary design for the purpose of purchasing and placing on the territory of Japan by American ground-based missile defense systems Aegis Ahore and the acquisition of new interceptor missiles SM-3 Block 2A, which Tokyo is developing jointly with Washington. These measures are necessary, as they say in Japan, amid North Korean threats .

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In addition, the Japanese defense Ministry intends to proceed with the development of a cruise missile, intended to accommodate aircraft and attack ships and ground targets. This prototype, as the media reported, some in Tokyo called the Japanese Tomahawk. It is designed to defend remote Japanese Islands.

However, additional funds for the defense will, as in previous years, highlighted by the adoption of the supplementary budget for the remainder of the 2017 financial year. As expected, some of the requested of the Ministry of defense’s 230 billion yen will go to receive from U.S. technical data Aegis Ahore and modernization of computer aided detection of missile launches and control missile defense (Japan Aerospace Defence Ground Environment, JADGE).

The cost of defense in the 2018 financial year, included in General budget, the amount of which 97.7 trillion yen (about $867 billion at the current exchange rate) will also be a record. It will increase spending on social services, including the provision of medical care.

Japan for several years has consistently increased the defense budget is difficult, according to Tokyo, the situation in the field of security in the region. This is a concern of a number of countries, including China.