World Notes Japan

The haggling went on through the night last week as Japan's top finance and defense officials debated a perennially sensitive question: whether or not to exceed an informal cap on military spending that since 1976 has been held to less than l% of the country's gross national product. Finally, the ministers agreed on what the government later called an "epochal" solution. They approved a five-year, $76 billion defense spending plan that would involve annual average outlays of 1.038% of GNP.

In the U.S., which currently spends 6.4% of its GNP on the military and where Japan has frequently been accused of getting a "free ride" on defense, the decison was applauded by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. The move, however, did not sit well with Japan's Socialist Party, which accused Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone of being "ready to drag Japan back to the path toward war." And according to a poll published by the newspaper Nikkei, more than 65% of the public prefers that the government stick to the less-than-1% approach to defense.