TOKYO -- When senior officials from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party met last month to discuss next fiscal year's defense budget, a former defense minister raised a topic outside the scope of big spending items like missiles and fighter jets.
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Lt. Gen. Ryoji Takemoto, head of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's Western Army, left, poses in front of a HIMARS rocket launcher with Major Gen. Joel Vowell, commander of U.S. Army Japan, in southwestern Japan in August. © Kyodo
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