Japan’s defence budget for fiscal year 2026 will amount to approximately 10.6 trillion yen ($66.5 billion), representing 1.9 percent of the country’s 2022 GDP. Why is Tokyo rearming, and why does it use the 2022 GDP as a reference point? Japan aims to increase its defence spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2027 . As explained by Minister of Defence Shinjiro Koizumi, “It is appropriate to compare annual defence expenditures using the gross domestic product from fiscal year 2022 as a reference point,