Japan willing to buy US military transport aircraft

Japan wants to purchase US military transport aircraft for its Self Defense Forces (SDF), said government sources, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported Thursday.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba indicated this during a meeting on Feb. 7 in Washington, DC with US President Donald Trump, said the sources, in a possible attempt to reduce pressure from Washington to boost defense spending.

Ishiba’s idea to purchase the aircraft, believed to be C-17s, was welcomed by the US side at the meeting, which marked the first summit between the two leaders since Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20.

Tokyo is bracing for a US push to increase defense spending, considering Trump's repeated demand for NATO allies to spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) for defense.

Japan, which has been following a pacifist post-World War II constitution since 1947, had long capped its defense budget at around 1% of GDP, or around 5 trillion yen ($33.5 billion).

But in recent years, it has raised the defense budget towards a goal of 2% of GDP in 2027 amid growing security challenges posed by China and North Korea.

Ishiba, a former defense minister, has been a proponent of C-17 procurement, given its superior transport capacity to the domestically produced C-2 planes currently operated by the SDF.

Japan would be getting secondhand aircraft if the purchase plan is realized, as Boeing Co. stopped manufacturing C-17s in 2015.