{"id":19327,"date":"2025-10-30T03:29:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T03:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/19327\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T03:29:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T03:29:27","slug":"hegseth-welcomes-japans-arms-spending-increase-says-us-japan-alliance-key-to-deter-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/19327\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth welcomes Japan\u2019s arms spending increase, says US-Japan alliance key to deter China"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MARI YAMAGUCHI<\/p>\n

TOKYO (AP) \u2014 U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a> on Wednesday welcomed Japan\u2019s determination to accelerate its ongoing military buildup and defense spending.<\/p>\n

During a visit to Japan, Hegseth said he hopes to see those pledges implemented as soon as possible, noting China\u2019s increasingly assertive military activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe threats we face are real, and they are urgent. China\u2019s unprecedented military buildup and its aggressive military actions speak for themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cMake no mistake about it, our alliance is critical to deterring Chinese military aggression, to responding to regional contingencies, and keeping our countries safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth said he was \u201cglad\u201d to see Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a> \u2014 speaking alongside U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> this week \u2014 make a commitment to increase Japan\u2019s defense spending, calling it \u201cwonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the U.S. government had not demanded Japan\u2019s spending increase.<\/p>\n

His comment comes a day after Takaichi, who became prime minister only last week, explained to Trump during their first summit that her government will raise Japan\u2019s defense spending to 2% of its gross national product by March, two years ahead of initially planned. Japan also plans to revise its ongoing national security strategy several years ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

\"AA guard of honor stands for inspection by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Japan\u2019s Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, both unseen, in Tokyo Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025. (Takashi Aoyama\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an important step forward, and one that we hope would be implemented and believe will be as soon as possible,\u201d Hegseth told a joint news conference after holding talks with Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi. \u201cThe result, through our shared strength, will deter threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to invest now and invest quickly while we still have time,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

Koizumi welcomed the agreement between the two governments to move up deliveries of U.S.-made Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM, though he did not give further details.<\/p>\n

Japan is seeking to create a more self-sufficient military as a deterrence against China\u2019s increasingly assertive military activity in the region, and has concentrated on defense buildup on its southwestern islands. Japan also has concerns about the rising tensions caused by North Korea and Russia.<\/p>\n

Japan has already moved up a planned deployment of its medium and long-range missiles<\/a> such as Tomahawk and Japanese-made Tupe-12 anti-ship missiles.<\/p>\n

These efforts mark a historic shift from Japan\u2019s longstanding policy of limiting use of force to self-defense only under a pacifist Constitution written after World War II.<\/p>\n

It made a major break from that policy under the 2022 security strategy that calls for more offensive roles for Japan\u2019s Self-Defense Forces and easing restrictions on arms exports. The Takaichi government is also seeking to further relax weapons transfers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By MARI YAMAGUCHI TOKYO (AP) \u2014 U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday welcomed Japan\u2019s determination to accelerate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6201,12525,13533,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-19327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-japan","10":"tag-pete-hegseth","11":"tag-scranton","12":"tag-scranton-headlines","13":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}