TOKYO – Japan's defense-related budget for fiscal 2025 is expected to total about 9.9 trillion yen (about $70 billion), equivalent to 1.8 percent of gross domestic product three years earlier, local media reported on Tuesday.

The government will allocate around 8.5 trillion yen for its defense budget and about 1.5 trillion yen for related spending in its initial budget for the current fiscal year starting this month, Kyodo News reported quoting Defense Minister Gen Nakatani as saying at a press conference.

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The country has set a goal outlined in its 2022 National Security Strategy of bringing defense spending to 2 percent of the GDP in fiscal 2027, after long maintaining an informal cap of around 1 percent, or about 5 trillion yen, under its war-renouncing Constitution. The defense spending increases will be based on the fiscal 2022 GDP.

The figures "show our efforts to strengthen our defense capabilities are steadily progressing" toward the numerical target, said Nakatani.

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The expansion of Japan's military budget has raised concerns domestically and internationally.