Japan seeks 730 mil. yen for land-based anti-missile system

Japan's Defense Ministry has requested an additional 730 million yen ($6.4 million) in next fiscal year's budget for a plan to introduce two land-based Aegis missile defense systems, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Sunday.The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to endorse the so-called Aegis Ashore deployment on Dec. 19, a government source said, as the country aims to bolster its defense capability against North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threat."There is a need to strengthen our capability to regularly and sustainably defend all of the country as soon as possible at…READ FULL ARTICLE