LDP May Study Security Spending Hike to 3-5 Pct of GDP

Tokyo, May 14 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party is poised to study a further hike in the country's security-related spending by taking account of initiatives of other nations and regional alliances, including a plan by NATO to increase such outlays to 3-5 pct of gross domestic product.

This is part of a draft set of issues that would be discussed for the Japanese government's plan to revise its three key security-related documents by the end of this year.

The draft was presented to Wednesday's meeting of the party's Research Commission on Security. A hike in security-linked spending is a focal point in the revision of the three documents--the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy and the Defense Buildup Program.

The commission hopes to draw up its proposals based on the draft for submission to the government in early June.

At the commission meeting, some participants called for a numerical target to be set for the envisaged increase in security spending while others argued that financial resources for the hike should be shown at first.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]