Japan will hold off on setting a ceiling for next fiscal year's defense spending, a draft of the government's budget outline showed, underscoring resolve to beef up expenditure to counter China's growing military presence.
Under the budget outline, the government will also set aside about ¥4.5 trillion ($33.24 billion) for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's flagship policy aimed at boosting investment in areas like green innovation and digitalization, the draft showed.
The budget outline, which serves as a guideline for ministries in submitting spending requests for next fiscal year, will be approved by Cabinet on Friday.