In the third episode of Japan Memo season 3, Mariko Togashi hosts Bill Emmott, Chairman of the IISS Trustees, Chair of the Japan Society UK and an Ushioda Fellow of Tokyo College at the University of Tokyo, and Fenella McGerty, IISS Senior Fellow for Defence Economics.

Mariko, Bill and Fenella analyse the balance between defence spending and other public spending priorities, unpack Prime Minister Kishida’s New Capitalism strategy and its implications for the defence budget increase, offer their views on how Japan could achieve the 2% defence spending target with other competing spending priorities, and examine how the defence budget increase can translate into greater military capabilities.

Topics discussed include:

The relationship between economic health and defence spending;
New Capitalism and Japan’s economic growth;
New Capitalism in achieving the defence budget increase to 2% of GDP;
What is needed for Japan to translate the defence budget increase into greater military capability; and
The Japanese defence industry’s role in building greater military capabilities

The following literature is recommended by our guests to gain a clearer picture of the topics discussed:

Christopher W Hughes, ‘Japan’s defence industry,’ in The Economics of the Global Defence Industry, Keith Hartley and Jean Belin, ed. (New York: Routledge, 2019), 396-436.
Bill Emmott, Japan’s Far More Female Future: Increasing Gender Equality and Reducing Workplace Insecurity Will Make Japan Stronger (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).
Matt Alt, Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World (Massachusetts: Little, Brown and Company, 2021).

We hope you enjoy the episode and please follow, rate, and subscribe to Japan Memo on the podcast platform of your choice.

Date of Recording: 13 March 2023

Japan Memo is recorded and produced at the IISS in London.

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Japan's New Capitalism and the defence b...