TOKYO, May 7 (Xinhua) -- The majority of residents in Japan are opposed to the country's aggressive defense outlays, or the government's tax hike plan to finance them, a recent local media poll has shown.
About 80 percent of respondents disapproved of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's call to finance a portion of defense spending by taxes, the survey conducted by national news agency Kyodo showed Saturday.
The reading further expanded from the 64.9 percent rate reported in a similar opinion poll at the end of last year.
The Japanese government has decided to increase defense spending by more than 50 percent to about 319 billion U.S. dollars in five years from fiscal 2023, as part of its plans to beef up defensive capabilities.
For the year from April, non-tax revenue will be used to fund the government's defense outlays according to the budget, which is set to double from the country's long-held cap of spending equaling roughly 1 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to around 2 percent of GDP in the year starting April 2027.
According to the survey, nearly 60 percent of respondents considered the five-year defense buildup plan "not appropriate," while 88 percent felt that Kishida's explanation about enhancing Japan's defense was "not sufficient."
Among the polled, the largest group of 48 percent said the public cannot bear further tax burdens when asked about the main reason for the tax hikes to cover the rise in defense spending.
The country's broader five-year plan has drawn staunch criticism from the public, opposition parties and scholars, in no small part due to the plan running contrary to Japan's constitutionally-bound pacifist stance.
Regarding the country's major policy shift highlighted in its updated security documents, 76 percent of those surveyed did not know or were not much aware of Japan's new national security strategy and related documents approved in December, which included the plan to obtain counterstrike capabilities and boost its defense spending.
The poll also revealed that nearly 60 percent of respondents believed that possessing counterstrike capabilities would lead to an arms race with neighboring countries.
The Kyodo survey targeted 3,000 men and women in Japan who were aged 18 years or above. The questionnaire was sent out through mail on March 7 and received 2,043 responses by April 17, of which 1,959 were considered valid. ■
