Military Power.net

Italyvs Japan

On Global Firepower's 2026 index, Japan (#7) holds a narrow edge over Italy (#10).

  • Italy has aircraft carriers; Japan has none.
  • Japan fields 14× as many destroyers.
  • Japan fields 3.6× as many tanks.
  1. People and moneyJapan leads 3 of 4
  2. Land forcesJapan leads 4 of 5
  3. Air powerJapan leads 6 of 7
  4. Naval forcesEven, 3–3
  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.

$48.1B
Military spending
$62.2B
166K
Active personnel
252K
18K
Reserves
56K
105K
Paramilitary
25K

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

Land forces

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

203
Tanks
734
87K
Armored vehicles
54K
64
Self-propelled artillery
193
108
Towed artillery
480
21
Rocket artillery
99

Air power

Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft across all branches.

714
Total aircraft
1,429
88
Fighters
217
65
Attack aircraft
47
352
Helicopters
583
37
Attack helicopters
118
8
Tankers
10
31
Transports
53

Naval forces

Hull counts, from carriers down to patrol boats.

285
Total fleet
158
2
Aircraft carriers
0
0
Helicopter carriers
4
8
Submarines
23
3
Destroyers
41
14
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: Italy and Japan. Sources: Global Firepower 2026, SIPRI Military Expenditure 2025 (Apr 2026), SIPRI Yearbook 2026: World Nuclear Forces.