Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio spoke at a news conference right after the Diet passed the religious donations bill.

Kishida referred to a proposed tax hike to cover the country's defense budget. He is ordering the budget to be increased to 2 percent of Japan's GDP within about 5 years.

But the government needs to find more than 29 billion dollars to finance the additional spending. It plans to raise taxes to cover about a quarter of the shortfall.

Kishida said, "It would be implemented in stages over several years, and the timing would be flexible. I won't take measures that would increase the burden on individual income taxes and I wouldn't start raising the taxes in the next fiscal year. I would like to ask for your cooperation to help us fulfill our responsibility to protect our current peaceful existence."

He stressed that the purpose is not merely to raise taxes, but that it is necessary to strengthen and maintain Japan's defense capabilities.