U.S. asked Japan to raise defense spending to 3.5% of GDP

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has asked Japan to raise its defense spending to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product, a request that will likely prompt Tokyo to call off a planned high-level meeting with Washington, a Japan-U.S. diplomatic source said Saturday.

The request was made recently by Elbridge Colby, U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy, the Financial Times has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Colby, a seasoned strategist, had previously pressed Japan to increase its defense spending to 3 percent of its GDP.

File photo shows Elbridge Colby ahead of his confirmation hearing as nominee to be undersecretary of defense for policy, in Washington in March 2025. (Anadolu Agency/Getty/Kyodo) ==Kyodo

The increased demand will likely lead Japan to cancel a planned meeting of the countries’ foreign and defense chiefs, which was scheduled in Washington before Japan’s House of Councillors election, expected on July 20.

The meeting would have been the first since Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Trump took office in October and January, respectively.

Kyodo News reported in late May that Japan and the United States were considering holding the so-called two-plus-two security talks in Washington this summer.

Japan and the United States had not formally said such talks, as held in July last year in Tokyo, would take place.

In 2022, after Trump’s first term, Japan decided to double its annual defense budget to 2 percent of GDP by 2027, a dramatic move in postwar security policy under the country’s war-renouncing Constitution.

But Trump continues to complain that the U.S.-Japan security treaty is one-sided, with his administration apparently planning to ask Tokyo to pay more for American troops based in the Japanese archipelago once bilateral negotiations over his tariffs proceed.

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force personnel conduct a joint exercise with U.S. Marine Corps members on Okinoerabu Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, on Feb. 27, 2025.  (Kyodo)