Military Power.net

Australiavs Japan

On Global Firepower's 2026 index, Japan (#7) holds a solid edge over Australia (#17).

  • Japan fields 16× as many tanks.
  • Japan fields 14× as many destroyers.
  • Japan fields 9× as many fighters.
  1. People and moneyJapan leads 4 of 4
  2. Land forcesJapan leads 5 of 5
  3. Air powerJapan leads 6 of 7
  4. Naval forcesJapan leads 5 of 7
  5. Nuclear weaponsEven, 0–0

Leads count raw numbers in each category. Larger is not always stronger: a modern fleet can beat a bigger, older one.

People and money

Who can be put in uniform, and how much is spent keeping them there.

$35.3B
Military spending
$62.2B
59K
Active personnel
252K
33K
Reserves
56K
0
Paramilitary
25K

Spending is SIPRI's 2025 estimate in US dollars (Australia: 1.9% of GDP; Japan: 1.4% of GDP).

Land forces

Armour and artillery: the weight an army can put on the ground.

46
Tanks
734
17K
Armored vehicles
54K
0
Self-propelled artillery
193
48
Towed artillery
480
8
Rocket artillery
99

Air power

Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft across all branches.

348
Total aircraft
1,429
24
Fighters
217
71
Attack aircraft
47
72
Helicopters
583
22
Attack helicopters
118
6
Tankers
10
37
Transports
53

Naval forces

Hull counts, from carriers down to patrol boats.

45
Total fleet
158
0
Aircraft carriers
0
2
Helicopter carriers
4
6
Submarines
23
3
Destroyers
41
7
Frigates
8
0
Corvettes
0

Nuclear weapons

Estimated warheads in military stockpiles, January 2026.

0
Warheads
0
0
Deployed warheads
0

Compare other countries

Related matchups

Profiles: Australia and Japan. Sources: Global Firepower 2026, SIPRI Military Expenditure 2025 (Apr 2026), SIPRI Yearbook 2026: World Nuclear Forces.