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Japan's cabinet secretary announced the relaxation of export restrictions, allowing it to export domestically produced missiles and artillery to countries, including the United States, and approved a record increase in defense spending next year.
This is Japan's most significant policy reform in nearly a decade, with a 16 percent increase in defense spending budgets and a doubling of defense spending by 2027 to NATO standards, which is 2 percent of gross domestic product.
As a defeated country in World War II, Japan was not allowed to ship ** to warring countries, and according to previous regulations, Japan could only export ** parts and components, and was prohibited from delivering finished products.
But deregulation, with the tacit consent of the United States, means that Japan is able to send Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to the United States. The Patriot missile defense system is one of a series of ** supplied by the West to Ukraine. Japan, which produces Patriot missiles under license from the American company Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, will now allow Tokyo to export finished products to the countries where the patent holders are located, that is, to the United States.
The Financial Times reports that Japan is also considering exporting 155mm artillery shells manufactured under a BAE Systems license to the UK.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said this is not only good for Japan's security, but also good for peace and stability in the broader Indo-Pacific region, and is of great significance for further strengthening the Japan-US alliance.
Friday's announcement marked a major shift in Japan, which has long taken a stance of not allowing lethal exports and that bolstering Japan's strike capabilities breaks with its post-World War II principle of limiting the use of force.
At a time when security tensions in the Indo-Pacific region are intensifying, Japan's easing of export controls and record increase in defense spending are inseparable from the support and acquiescence of the United States, which deserves the world's vigilance.