Asia-Pacific News
Japan has Defence Ministry, first time since 1945
Jan 8, 2007, 10:40 GMT
Tokyo - For the first time since the Second World War, Japan has a full-fledged Defence Ministry.
Parliament passed the law in mid-December to upgrade the defence agency to ministry-level, which will bolster the country's military status and give it more control over requests for the annual military budget.
Japan's 1947 constitution declared the country to be pacifist.
Despite manning only a self-defence force, Japan has one of the world's largest military budgets at 41 billion dollars a year. However, the proposed budget for 2007 is estimated to be down 0.3 per cent, or 15.6 billion yen.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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