Japan’s FY 2014 Defense Budget to Grow, Watchful of China’s Rapid Rise

• The Japanese cabinet had barely approved its FY 2014 budget that China’s official media was already noting that Japan’s defense spending is set to grow by 2.8% to 4.88 trillion yen (about $46.8B). Guess why that is? For reference, here is the FY14 budget request [PDF] submitted by the Ministry of Defense in August, and a national security strategy [PDF] released a week ago (of course China objects to that document as well).