TAIPEI - Japan needs to increase its military spending in the face of the “grim reality” of the threat from China and North Korea, a senior member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said on Sunday during a visit to Taiwan.

Although Chinese-claimed and democratically governed Taiwan does not have formal diplomatic ties with Japan, they have close unofficial relations and both share concerns about China, especially its increased military activities near them.

LDP policy chief and former industry minister Koichi Hagiuda said during a visit to Taipei that since World War II, Japan has “walked the path of peace” and that will not change in the future.

“However, just reciting the word peace is of course not enough for our peace to be protected,” he told a forum on Japan-Taiwan relations.

As Japan prepares its 2023 budget, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has already announced plans to lift defence spending to an amount equivalent to 2 per cent of gross domestic product within five years, from 1 per cent now.

That would take Japan’s annual defence budget to more than 11 trillion yen (S$109 billion) from 5.4 trillion yen now, giving the country the world’s third-largest military budget after the United States and China at their current levels.

Mr Hagiuda pointed to China’s massive increase in military spending, as well as North Korean missile tests, as reasons for Japan to raise its defence budget.

“In the face of such a grim reality, half measures have no meaning at all.”

Japan’s defence capabilities are necessary to protect lives and peace and must be developed immediately, not within five years, he added.

“It’s important to show clearly that we have sufficient capacity to make any would-be aggressor think twice.”

China staged military drills near Taiwan in August to express anger at a visit to Taipei by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The drills included launching five missiles into the sea close to Okinawa, within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Japan hosts major US military bases, including on Okinawa – a short flight from Taiwan – which would be crucial for any US support during a Chinese attack.

The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, though there is ambiguity about whether it would send forces to help Taiwan in a war with China.

Addressing a think-tank in Taiwan last December, the late former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe said Japan and the US could not stand by if China attacked Taiwan, and Beijing needs to understand this. REUTERS