MilitaryCompare / United States vs Japan
United States vs Japan
The United States ranks #1 and Japan ranks #10 in the 2026 Military Atlas Index. The United States spends $954B on defense with 1.34M active personnel; Japan spends $62.2B with 247K.
| Overview | ||
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Global Rank | #10 |
| $954B | Defense Budget | $62.2B |
| 3.1% | Budget % of GDP | 1.4% |
| $30.77T | GDP | $4.44T |
| 341.78M | Population | 123.37M |
| Personnel | ||
| 1.34M | Active Personnel | 247K |
| 805K | Reserve Personnel | 56K |
| 0 | Paramilitary | 15K |
| Air | ||
| 12,604 | Military Aircraft | 1,214 |
| 2,809 | Combat Aircraft | 264 |
| 2,473 | Fighter Jets | 264 |
| 642 | 5th Gen Fighters | 47 |
| 135 | Bombers | 0 |
| 5,062 | Helicopters | 488 |
| 1,057 | Attack Helicopters | 83 |
| 355 | Military Drones (UAV) | 43 |
| Land | ||
| 2,666 | Main Battle Tanks | 340 |
| 7,683 | Infantry Fighting Vehicles | 70 |
| 7,328 | Armoured Personnel Carriers | 766 |
| 3,850 | Artillery Systems | 772 |
| Naval | ||
| 67 | Submarines | 22 |
| 67 | Nuclear Submarines | 0 |
| 11 | Aircraft Carriers | 2 |
| 9 | Helicopter / Amphibious Carriers | 2 |
| Strategic | ||
| 5,042 | Nuclear Warheads | 0 |
| 3 | Ballistic Missile Systems | — |
| 1 | ICBM Systems | — |
| 4 | Cruise Missile Systems | — |
| 1 | Hypersonic Systems | — |
| 13,000 km | Longest Missile Range | — |
The United States leads in 21 of the 22 measured categories, Japan in 1. Numbers alone do not decide a war: training, logistics, geography, alliances and nuclear deterrence matter too. A dash means the source publishes no figure.
Sources: CSIS Missile Threat, Federation of American Scientists, IISS Military Balance, Military Atlas Index, SIPRI, Wikipedia, Wikipedia / FlightGlobal, World Bank.