The Japanese Cabinet on Friday approved a hefty 16 percent increase in military spending next year and eased its postwar ban on lethal weapons exports, underscoring a shift away from the country’s self-defense-only principle.
The moves came as Japan accelerates the deployment of long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea, while Japanese troops increasingly work with allies and take on more offensive roles.
In the latest step under a new security strategy that Japan adopted a year ago, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government also allowed the export of weapons and components made in Japan under foreign licenses to the licensing nations. The move is the first major revision of Japan’s arms export ban since an earlier easing in 2014.
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The ￥7.95 trillion (US$55.8 billion) defense budget for the 2024 fiscal year that begins in March marks the second year of the five-year military buildup program.
The national budget still needs to be approved by the parliament.
“In taking the action, we hope to contribute to defend a free and open international order based on the rule of law, and to achieve the peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” Kishida told reporters. “There is no change to our principle as a pacifist nation.”
The government quickly approved the first export shipment under the change, agreeing to send to the US surface-to-air Patriot guided missiles produced in Japan under a US license.
Officials said it would complement US stock, raising speculation that Japanese-produced Patriot missiles might be sent to Ukraine.
The easing also paves the way for possible exports to the US, the UK and six European licensing nations involving dozens of lethal weapons and components, including F-15s and fighter jet engines.
“The scope, scale, and speed of Japan’s security reforms have been unprecedented,” US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel wrote on X.
He praised the easing of the defense equipment and transfer policy as historic and “a significant example of Japan’s shared commitment to deterrence.”
The ban on the export of lethal weapons has limited the scope of Japan’s efforts to develop arms technology and equipment.
The easing would help strengthen Japan’s feeble defense industry and broaden the country’s new official military aid designed for like-minded nations in the Indo-Pacific region in countering Chinese assertiveness, experts say.
Japan is next year spending more than ￥70 billion on developing a next-generation fighter jet with the UK and Italy, and the project hinges on a further easing of restrictions to allow the export of jointly developed lethal weapons to third countries — a change Kishida wants by the end of February.
The centerpiece of Japan’s military budget for next year is an early deployment of “standoff” missiles that officials say are needed to reinforce air defenses, especially to protect Japan’s southwestern islands in case a conflict erupts between China and Taiwan.
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