Japan Press Weekly

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2015 May 27 - June 2 [POLITICS]

Abe’s plan to use public fund to support arms exports unacceptable

The Abe government is showing its enthusiasm for promoting Japan’s arms exports, even considering providing financial support for prospective customer countries in Asia with the aim of increasing purchase orders.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in April 2014 discarded Japan’s long-held principles restricting arms trade and introduced a new set of principles in order to give a boost to sales of weapons abroad. On the following month, Abe in his speech at the Asian Security Summit expressed his intention to help promote the “transfer” of Japan’s defense equipment and technology to ASEAN countries. In September, a weapons exhibition was held in the Defense Ministry building for the first time ever.

In December, the Defense Ministry set up an expert panel to facilitate exports of weapons, appointing Tsutsumi Tomio of the Japan Association of Defense Industry, a leader of Japan’s military manufacturers’ group, and former Defense Minister Morimoto Satoshi as members.

The panel has been discussing legislation that will enable Japan to offer equipment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces at low cost or for free.

In addition, the panel is considering using public funding to support nations willing to purchase Japanese weapons.

Japanese Communist Party lawmaker Akamine Seiken in April at a Security Committee meeting of the House of Representatives criticized these moves by the government for leading to fomenting international disputes. He also said that such moves are unacceptable under Article 9 of the Constitution which prohibits the use of force as a means to settle international disputes.


Past related articles:
> Defense Ministry discussing ways to fund foreign governments’ purchase of Japan-made weapons [April 8, 2015]
> Gov’t abandons Japan’s arms embargo principles [April 2, 2014]
> Lifting arms embargo is integral to Abe’s attempt to build war-fighting Japan: Yamashita [April 2, 2014]