Record 5.3 tril. yen defense budget sought with missile shield system

The Defense Ministry requested on Friday a record budget of 5.3 trillion yen ($47.6 billion) for the fiscal year starting next April, including costs to deploy a ground-based missile shield system to counter the North Korean threat.The requested sum marks a 2.1 percent rise from the initial budget for the current fiscal year through March 2019, with defense spending expected to increase for the seventh consecutive year and reach a new high for the fifth year in a row under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.Excluding the costs associated with the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan and others that a…READ FULL ARTICLE