Japan flexes defense ambitions at arms show

Defense Minister Gen. Nakatani said that Japan’s opening of one of its biggest arms shows to date on Wednesday symbolized the pacifist country’s growing push for weapons exports and defense cooperation abroad.

Japanese warships, missiles, and research on lasers and electromagnetic railguns were on display at the DSEI Japan exhibition, which was held close to Tokyo. According to organizer Clarion Defense & Security, the event, which was double the size of the 2023 show, attracted 471 firms from 33 countries, including 169 from Japan. This is twice as many as it was two years ago.

In a speech at the event, Nakatani expressed his sincere hope that the exhibition would “provide a new opportunity for cooperation and exchange between national delegations and companies, help sustain defense industry development, drive innovation, and promote peace and stability.”

Since its defeat in World War Two, Japan has been progressively moving away from the pacifism that served as the foundation for decades of defense planning.

In 2014, the United States and European allies eager to share development costs and access Japan’s industrial base encouraged it to lift a ban on military exports. Now, it is making its first moves toward international defense cooperation.

“Strength comes from expanding and elevating the alliance’s capabilities and capacity, which means leveraging our respective skills and our specialties in co-development, co-production, and co-sustainment,” U.S. Ambassador to Japan George Glass said as he opened the DSEI U.S. pavilion.

Amid threats from China, North Korea and Russia, Japanese firms have become more willing to seek out military business.

“Our foundation goes back over 70 years with industry here. That’s with the big and large heavy industry players, which makes sense, but we’re seeing that now at multiple tier levels, tier one, tier two companies, even startups,” said William Blair, the regional chief in Asia and India for Lockheed Martin, which supplies F-35 stealth fighters, air defense radars and other equipment to Japan.

Japan’s partnerships in Europe include the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) jet fighter project with Britain and Italy.

“With today’s increasingly uncertain security environment, I believe we must respond not just domestically, but with a broader international perspective,” said Katsuyuki Nabeta, a general manager at the defense and space unit of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), which is leading the Japanese portion of that advanced fighter project.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to showcase our technologies and reach a wider audience, he added at the company booth next to a model of the Mogami warship it wants to sell to Australia.