Japan may need to boost defense costs to 10 tril. yen: think tank

Japan may need to increase its annual defense costs to as much as 10 trillion yen ($80 billion) from the current nearly 6 trillion yen to deal with China's growing military threat, a Defense Ministry think tank said Tuesday.The National Institute for Defense Studies said in an annual report that the increase of over 4 trillion yen in spending is not necessarily big considering the tremendous economic damage Japan could face if deterrence against China fails and a conflict arises between the two countries.Japan, known for its pacifist Constitution, has long capped its defense budget at aroun…READ FULL ARTICLE