Japan Press Weekly

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2014 November 12 - 18 [POLITICS]

War industry happy with Japan’s militarization

The Japanese government moves to remilitarization has given momentum to the war industry at home.

The government, led by the Liberal Democratic Party in 2008, enacted the Basic Act on Space. Japan’s space policy focused on science technology and R & D, but the new law expands the scope of the policy to “security” in space.

The present administration led by Abe Shinzo also puts emphasis on ensuring security in outer space by developing space systems to meet the needs of the Japan-U.S. military buildup and the joint operations of the three services of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industry (MHI) ranks at the top in the amount of arms purchases the Defense Ministry uses for. In response to the shift in the government space policy, MHI last year combined its space-related departments with the defense business department.

In this space defense domain, MHI is seeking to increase sales by 100 billion yen to 500 billion yen and to expand its business corresponding to the government move for joint operations of the Ground, Maritime and Air SDFs. Furthermore, the leading Japanese arms company is preparing for active sales promotion following the recent Abe Cabinet decision to remove the three principles banning arms exports.

The space and defense domain occupies 27% of MHI sales in Japan. This means more than one fourth of its domestic sales is from the war-related production. So far, the company has no sales in this domain in other countries.

However, Koga Yoshihiro, professor emeritus of Kaestu University and an expert in management economics, expressed concern by saying, “Expansion of arms exports will raise the proportion of military items in production as a whole and will bring about a change in the Japanese industrial structure.”

Past related articles:
> Japan’s shipbuilding giants heading toward rapid militarization [November 7 & 11, 2014]
> Lifting arms embargo is integral to Abe’s attempt to build war-fighting Japan: Yamashita [April 2, 2014]
> Committee of Seven for World Peace calls for public to prevent use of space for military purposes [August 27, 2008]
> Bill paving way for use of space for military purposes enacted [May 22, 2008]
> LDP, Komei, DPJ together seek legislation to promote use of space for military purposes [May 3, 2008]