Reference News Network, February 11 report. According to the Tokyo Shimbun on February 9, Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto Asaoka has put forward a slogan to strengthen defense capabilities, and spending on purchasing U.S. weapons has been on the rise. However, an audit by the National Audit Office showed that more than five years after the signing of procurement contracts, the U.S. had still not delivered weapons, and some weapons delivered later had malfunctions, with maintenance taking over 14 months. Similar cases have occurred multiple times. Why does the Japanese government use tax money paid by the people to purchase such weapons? Is Japan really going to continue "buying" American weapons in large quantities?

Data released by the National Audit Office in January showed that in fiscal year 2023, Japan's contract amount for procuring defense equipment from the United States through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mechanism reached about 138.67 billion yen (approximately 885 million U.S. dollars), increasing threefold compared to fiscal year 2018 (40.78 billion yen).

The National Audit Office had previously investigated FMS contract signings. This investigation was conducted at the request of the Diet, focusing on contract amounts from fiscal years 2018 to 2023. The results showed that the total contract amount over five years was 355 billion yen, including 100.35 billion yen for F-35 stealth fighter-related contracts, and 265.1 billion yen for maintenance components of the Aegis system for destroyers.

In 2022, the Japanese government formulated three security-related documents, determining the policy of investing 4.3 trillion yen in defense costs during the period from fiscal year 2023 to 2027.

If the Hashimoto administration continues to blindly promote the plan to enhance defense capabilities without adequately considering cost-effectiveness after the House of Representatives election, the trend of Japan "buying" American weapons is likely to increase further.

The Ministry of Defense emphasized that the advantage of FMS lies in "being able to procure high-performance equipment, which helps enhance Japan's defense capabilities," but many problems caused by it have long been criticized, such as Japan often purchasing weapons at the U.S. price, while the delivery time of the weapons depends on the U.S. situation.

In fact, according to the National Audit Office's report, among the 519 FMS contracts signed but not yet delivered before the end of fiscal year 2018, 118 (worth about 114 billion yen) were still not delivered even five years later at the end of fiscal year 2023.

Additionally, the survey found that six second-hand C-130R transport planes delivered by the U.S. to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force under FMS between fiscal years 2014 and 2016 were said to have "serious problems requiring major repairs," with actual repair taking more than 14 months.

It is evident that although Japan has used a large amount of money to purchase American-made weapons under the slogan of "strengthening defense capabilities," many weapons have not actually arrived in Japan, and Japan has even purchased some defective aircraft.

Despite this, multiple political parties advocated for strengthening defense capabilities during this House of Representatives election, and Hashimoto barely addressed issues related to purchasing American weapons, and problems related to FMS were rarely mentioned.

Journalist Hoshino Yujin, who is familiar with security policy, pointed out: "Is the way in which the already limited budget is being used appropriate? Neither in this election nor in the Diet has there been any necessary discussion. It is important that public opinion pays attention to this issue."

Why have successive Japanese governments continued to "buy" American weapons in large quantities?

Hoshino said that the U.S. has a huge trade deficit with Japan, and Japan's large-scale purchase of weapons from the U.S. is not only for defense needs but also to ease trade tensions. "The act of paying a large amount of money to the U.S. to buy weapons itself constitutes a purpose." (Translated by Ma Xiaoyun)

Original: toutiao.com/article/7605426903226417702/

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