Kurumi Mori,Correspondent in TokyoAnd
Koh Ewe
Japan has eased decades-old restrictions on its arms exports, paving the way for arms sales to more than a dozen countries.
Tuesday’s announcement marks an important step in Tokyo’s abandonment of the pacifism that characterized its postwar defense policy. It also comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region.
Restrictions that limit arms exports to just five categories – rescue, transport, warning, surveillance and mine clearance – will be lifted.
This means Japan can now sell lethal weapons to all 17 countries with which it has defense deals, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
The ban on arms sales to countries involved in a conflict will remain in place. But officials say they will allow exceptions “in special circumstances.”
“In an increasingly severe security environment, no country can now protect its own peace and security alone,” Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi wrote on X on Tuesday.
However, she also said there was “absolutely no change in our commitment to maintaining the path and fundamental principles that we have followed as a peace-loving nation for more than 80 years since the war.”
“Under the new system, we will strategically favor equipment transfers while making even more rigorous and careful judgments about whether transfers are permitted,” she wrote.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a news briefing that the move was “aimed at safeguarding Japan’s security and further contributing to regional peace and stability.”
China said it was “seriously concerned” by what it described as Japan’s “reckless militarization.”
“China will remain very vigilant and resolutely opposed [to the move]” Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said in a routine press briefing on Tuesday.
The new arms export rules were announced as Japan’s Self-Defense Forces participated in the annual U.S.-Philippines military exercises. Japan joins the war games for the first time as combatants, instead of just observers.
China has opposed the exercises, saying they would deepen divisions in the region. The exercises are taking place in parts of the Philippines close to waters and islands claimed by Beijing, including Taiwan.
China views Taiwan as a breakaway province that will ultimately be under Beijing’s control – and has not ruled out using force to take the island.
Last year, Takaichi angered Beijing after suggesting in parliament that Japan could respond with its Self-Defense Force if Beijing attacked Taiwan.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Japan’s defense policy “should ideally be carried out in a manner that upholds the spirit of the Peace Constitution while contributing to peace and stability in the region.”
South Korea was colonized by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Japanese soldiers forced hundreds of thousands of Koreans to work in its mines and factories. Women were reduced to sexual slavery.
Eight decades of pacifism
Japan’s defense posture was enshrined in its postwar constitution in 1947. Japan renounced war as a means of settling international disputes and declared that Japan would never maintain its war potential.
For decades, pacifism has been part of the Japanese identity. But this state of mind evolved gradually.
In 2023, then-Prime Minister Fumio Kishida went further by allowing exports of finished lethal weapons for the first time since World War II.
Takaichi supported the revision of the pacifist constitution. Although she did not specify the proposed changes, many believe it will involve modifying Article 9, which renounces war.
Takaichi’s supporters say Japan faces a new reality in which the old rules no longer apply to a country surrounded by China, Russia and North Korea.
But critics fear Japan is becoming a country capable of waging war. For them, Takaichi’s position on constitutional reform could mean that Japan could be drawn into military conflicts.