US reportedly asked Japan to raise defense spending to 3.5% of GDP
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has asked Japan to raise its defense spending to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product, a request that angered Tokyo and led it to put off a planned high-level meeting with Washington, the Financial Times reported Friday.
The request was made recently by Elbridge Colby, U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, the newspaper said, citing three people familiar with the matter, including two officials in Tokyo.
Colby, a seasoned strategist, had previously pressed Japan to increase its defense spending to 3 percent of its GDP.
The higher demand prompted Japan to cancel a meeting involving foreign and defense chiefs from the two countries, which the paper said was due to take place in Washington on July 1.
The meeting would have been the first since Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Trump took office in October and January, respectively.
Kyodo News reported in late May that Japan and the United States were considering holding the so-called two-plus-two security talks in Washington this summer.
Japan and the United States had not formally said such talks, as held in July last year in Tokyo, would take place.
Citing one of the officials, the newspaper said the decision to cancel the July 1 talks was also influenced by the timing of Japan's upper house election, set for July 20.
In 2022, after Trump's first term, Japan decided to double its annual defense budget to 2 percent of GDP by 2027, a dramatic move in postwar security policy under the country's war-renouncing Constitution.
But Trump continues to complain that the U.S.-Japan security treaty is one-sided, with his administration apparently planning to ask Tokyo to pay more for American troops based in the Japanese archipelago once bilateral negotiations over his tariffs proceed.
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