March 29 & 31, 2023

If the government cancels its plan to purchase U.S.-made Tomahawk missiles, this will enable the construction of more childcare and nursing-care facilities, Akahata reported on March 31 based on its calculations using the government-drafted 2023 budget.

The Kishida government in fiscal 2023 will use 6.8 trillion yen for the military budget, up 4.8 trillion yen from the previous year, as the first installation of its five-year, 43 trillion-yen military spending plan.

In the 6.8-trillion-yen military budget, 211.3 billion yen was allocated as the cost for purchasing 400 U.S.-made Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles, which means that each missile carries a price tag of about 523 million yen.

According to Akahata, the cancellation of one Tomahawk missile purchase will create financial resources to build two public childcare centers for 90 children each. The cancellation of three missiles would fund the construction of a public nursing-care facility for 120 elderly.

The government-drafted 114-trillion-yen 2023 budget bill was approved and enacted on March 28 at the House of Councilors plenary meeting by the majority of votes of the Liberal Democratic and Komei parties. The Japanese Communist Party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the Reiwa “Shinsengumi” party, and the Upper House political group Okinawa Whirlwind voted against the bill.