TOKYO -- Japan's ruling coalition approved on Thursday a government plan to spend a record 27.47 trillion yen ($242 billion) for defense in the five years through fiscal 2023 that includes big-ticket purchases of American hardware, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump's calls to narrow the bilateral trade imbalance.
A key part of the strategy revolves around F-35 stealth fighters, which cost about $100 million apiece. Japan will buy 105 more of these planes, including the short-takeoff/vertical-landing F-35B version not yet deployed in Japan, at a total cost of about 1 trillion yen.
