FOLLOW US

TOKYO — For the first time since the end of the Second World War, Japan has torn up the guardrails that kept its factories from selling lethal weapons abroad, clearing the way for a next-generation fighter jet, long-range missiles, destroyers and combat drones to flow from Japanese assembly lines to foreign militaries. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Cabinet formally approved the sweeping revision Tuesday, ending more than seven decades of pacifist export doctrine and positioning the world's third-largest economy as a serious player in the global arms trade.

The shift, which Japanese officials had been telegraphing for months, is the most consequential rewrite of Tokyo's defense-industrial rules since the self-imposed Three Principles on Arms Exports of 1967. Under the new guideline, Japanese firms will be permitted to export equipment previously barred from sale — including the sixth-generation fighter being co-developed with the United Kingdom and Italy under the Global Combat Air Programme, or GCAP.

From Flak Jackets To Fighter Jets

Until Tuesday, Japan's export activity had been confined to a narrow strip of permissible categories — rescue, transport, alert, surveillance and minesweeping — alongside humanitarian aid such as flak jackets, gas masks and civilian-use vehicles sent to Ukraine since Russia's 2022 invasion. The new rules scrap those limits entirely, and industry officials said the immediate beneficiaries will be Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, IHI Corporation and a constellation of smaller component suppliers that have spent decades building world-class weapons systems that could only be sold to a single customer: the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.

"This is Japan finally coming off the sidelines," said Jeffrey Hornung, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation who has written extensively on Japan's defense posture. "They build some of the best diesel submarines in the world, arguably the best minesweepers, and they've been a core partner on the next-generation fighter. What's changed isn't the capability. It's the willingness to sell that capability."

Seventeen Approved Customers, A Watchful National Security Council

The export door is not fully open to anyone. Under the revision, arms sales will initially be restricted to seventeen partner countries that have signed defense equipment and technology transfer agreements with Tokyo — a roster that includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Germany, France and Italy. Each sale must be approved by Japan's National Security Council, and Tokyo will monitor how exported weapons are used and maintained after delivery.