Japan's constitution, written under American occupation in 1947, renounces war and forbids the country to keep armed forces. Japan has had armed forces since 1954, called Self-Defense Forces, held for decades to one percent of national output, forbidden to fight abroad, to strike enemy territory or to sell weapons. One by one those limits have gone. Spending is doubling, long-range missiles are on order, arms exports were freed in April 2026, and the government now has the two thirds of parliament needed to propose changing the constitution itself.
The wider rivalry and each side's full account: Japan and China.
Where it stands · September 2026
Japan's defence ministry has submitted its budget request for the coming fiscal year. The request is the largest the ministry has made. The figure continues a series of annual increases in planned defence spending. The request now goes to the finance ministry and then to the cabinet for approval. No decision on the final amount has been announced.
What the dispute is about
Whether Japan may be a normal military power. Its government says eighty years of peaceful conduct have earned it the right every state has. China and both Koreas say a country that has not settled its account with the past has not.
Strike weapons. For sixty years Japan held that its constitution allowed only a shield. Since 2022 it has been buying missiles that can hit bases in China and North Korea, and calls this counterstrike.
Article 9. The governing coalition wants to write the armed forces into the constitution. That needs two thirds of each house, which it has, and a majority in a referendum, which polls do not promise.
