The World - News from July 11, 1989

Japan’s leaders agreed to provisionally budget for hefty increases in defense spending and overseas aid for the next fiscal year, government officials said. They said defense outlays will increase as much as 6.35% in the year that begins April 1, 1990, and overseas aid by up to 9.4% over the current fiscal year. Japan has been under pressure from the United States to recycle some of its huge trade surplus back to the Third World by increasing its spending on overseas aid, and this year Japan passed the United States in total overseas aid expenditures. Washington has also been pressing Tokyo to take up a greater share of the burden of defending itself.