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.
Who leads in each area
- People and moneyJapan leads 4 of 4
- Land forcesJapan leads 5 of 5
- Air powerJapan leads 6 of 7
- Naval forcesJapan leads 5 of 7
- 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
$62.2B59K
Active personnel
252K33K
Reserves
56K0
Paramilitary
25KSpending 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
73417K
Armored vehicles
54K0
Self-propelled artillery
19348
Towed artillery
4808
Rocket artillery
99Air power
Fixed-wing and rotary aircraft across all branches.
348
Total aircraft
1,42924
Fighters
21771
Attack aircraft
4772
Helicopters
58322
Attack helicopters
1186
Tankers
1037
Transports
53Naval forces
Hull counts, from carriers down to patrol boats.
45
Total fleet
1580
Aircraft carriers
02
Helicopter carriers
46
Submarines
233
Destroyers
417
Frigates
80
Corvettes
0Nuclear weapons
Estimated warheads in military stockpiles, January 2026.
0
Warheads
00
Deployed warheads
0Compare other countries
Related matchups
Profiles: Australia and Japan. Sources: Global Firepower 2026, SIPRI Military Expenditure 2025 (Apr 2026), SIPRI Yearbook 2026: World Nuclear Forces.