Tokyo: Japan’s Foreign Ministry will seek 70.1 billion yen in spending to tackle disinformation often spread by China and Russia as part of its budget request for fiscal 2024.

Aiming to brace for information wars, the ministry hopes to use the funds to improve the government’s ability to analyze international situations by utilizing artificial intelligence.

It also plans to send out messages regarding Japan’s release of treated water containing radioactive tritium from the disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the Pacific in an effort to counter criticism by Beijing, which describes the water as nuclear-tainted.

The ministry’s overall budget request, presented and approved at a meeting of ruling Liberal Democratic Party officials on Wednesday, totaled 813.7 billion yen, up by 70.3 billion yen from the fiscal 2023 budget.

The budget request includes 196.5 billion yen in spending to maintain and strengthen a free and open international order based on the rule of law.

The ministry will also seek 2.1 billion yen for the country’s new official security assistance, or OSA, scheme, which allows Japan to provide grant aid to the armed forces of like-minded countries to help them improve their capabilities. It will also seek further funds for this purpose without saying how much will be needed.

Also, the ministry will request 117.2 billion yen to implement drastic measures to strengthen diplomatic and consular functions, including improving the capabilities of its embassies. Of the amount, 11.9 billion yen will be for building new diplomatic establishments abroad and repairing existing ones. More bulletproof vehicles will be deployed to protect Japanese nationals abroad.

JIJI Press