As the world sees growing shifts in global defense policy and a steady upward trend in military spending across many nations, one prominent Japanese academic has stepped forward to sound the alarm over the underrecognized long-term dangers that come with large-scale military expansion. Hiroshi Onishi, emeritus professor at Japan’s Keio University and vice-chairman of the World Association for Political Economy, drew direct parallels between contemporary moves to expand military capacity and Japan’s pre-World War II strategic choices that altered the course of global history. In his analysis, Onishi recalled that in the years leading up to World War II, Japan funded its dramatic military buildup through the issuance of massive volumes of government bonds, a fiscal choice that set the nation on a path of escalating aggression with catastrophic global consequences.
Beyond the geopolitical risks of renewed militarization, Onishi has also laid out clear opposition to the current push for rising national defense budgets, highlighting the severe economic harm that increased military spending inflicts on broader public well-being and long-term national competitiveness. He emphasized that diverting an ever-larger share of national resources to military projects does not generate sustainable broad-based growth. Instead, the academic warned, significant increases in defense expenditure inevitably crowd out funding for civilian needs and gradually erode household consumption capacity, weakening domestic demand and undermining a nation’s overall economic strength over time. His warning comes amid growing global debate over defense budget priorities, as nations weigh security concerns against the need for investments in social welfare, infrastructure, and civilian economic development.