The Japanese Cabinet this week transformed the nation’s arms export policies, greatly expanding Japan’s opportunities to contribute to the promotion and protection of international peace and security. Fears that this move is a radical shift in defense and security policies are overblown.
This new policy responds to the new security reality, recognizing that dangers are mounting and every nation must do more to help fight instability. Japan must do its part.
For nearly half a century, this nation has abided by its three principles on arms exports, a policy adopted in 1967 by then-Prime Minister Eisaku Sato. It forbids the export of weapons to communist-bloc countries, to countries subject to U.N. resolutions prohibiting arms exports and to countries involved in international conflicts or at risk of becoming involved. A decade later, the Cabinet of Prime Minister Takeo Miki tightened the rules, noting that Japan would “refrain from exporting arms in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution and legal amendments.” This became a near-total embargo on weapons sales to foreign countries.
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