The Japanese government moved on Tuesday to allow the sale of more weapons abroad, in the latest shift away from pacifist policies imposed after World War II, as it grapples with rising security threats from China and a rapidly changing global order.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, at a cabinet meeting in Tokyo, reversed longstanding limits on the sale of Japan-made weapons overseas. The move comes days after Japan welcomed more than 30 NATO envoys for a visit meant to show stronger ties, and after Tokyo sealed a $6.5 billion deal to supply warships to Australia.
Ms. Takaichi said in a post on X that the change was necessary in an “increasingly challenging security environment.”
“No single country can now protect its own peace and security alone,” she said.
Ms. Takaichi, an outspoken critic of Beijing who rose to power last year, is seeking to shore up Japan’s defense industry and to build a more diverse network of allies, with increasing uncertainty over the reliability of its main partner, the United States. Japan hopes that easing the export rules can help strengthen deterrence in the region by showing China, North Korea and Russia that democratic countries around the Pacific are building a global arms supply chain.
Japan, which adopted pacifism in the aftermath of World War II, has gradually eased limits on weapons exports over the past decade, allowing some exceptions, such as for rescue purposes, surveillance or under license agreements.The changes approved on Tuesday will unfetter defense contractors, allowing them to sell lethal weapons systems directly to 17 countries. That will permit Japanese companies to provide advanced frigates to the Philippines, for example, or submarines to Indonesia. But Japan will still prohibit the transfer of lethal weapons to countries in active combat, unless top officials determine that national security is at stake.
Ms. Takaichi addressed concerns about Japan abandoning its postwar pacifism, writing that “there is absolutely no change in our commitment to upholding the path and fundamental principles we have followed as a peaceful nation for over 80 years since the war.”
