Japan's push for militarization proceeds apace: China Daily editorial

On Thursday, the Japanese Cabinet approved a bill aimed at making domestic "defense equipment" more up to date, along with a bill to establish a fund to promote exports of its "defense equipment".

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine to argue that Japan needs to lift the restrictions on exports of lethal weapons so it can supply weapons to the latter, the Fumio Kishida government is pushing ahead in the direction set by Shinzo Abe.

The Three Principles on the Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology introduced by the Abe administration allowed the export of non-lethal weapons to countries willing to jointly develop military products with Japan, with exports to other countries "limited to equipment used for rescue, transportation, warning, surveillance and mine clearance tasks".

However, the Abe administration's attempts to try to energize Japan's sluggish domestic defense industry and promote joint weapons research and development with friendly nations have failed to achieve their aims. Not least because Japanese defense manufacturers have been worried about their corporate image as the majority of Japanese society opposed Abe's push for the militarization of the country.

Nonetheless, with big-ticket purchases of weapons from the United States, Japan has steadily moved toward assuming a greater military role in world affairs. Now, having laid the groundwork by hyping up regional security threats from China, Russia and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Fumio Kishida government is seeking to further lift the restrictions on Japanese arms exports.

The move is not only intended to help Japanese arms manufacturers, such as Mitsubishi, IHI Corp and Kawasaki Heavy Industries step up their game. It is also aimed at enabling Japan to play a more active role in the US' strategic arrangement in the Far East, as well as granting it greater clout to intervene in regional affairs. It also brings Japan's right-wing politicians a step closer to realizing their objective of scrapping the country's so-called pacifist Constitution.

With all these aspects interwoven, and with Japanese Defense Minister Yasuichi Hamada saying at a news conference introducing the bills that "the state should lead and participate in the transfer of defense equipment", which the Kishida government views as an "important diplomatic and defense policy tool", a military-industrial complex, like that in the US, is set to be formed in Japan. This will inevitably drive the nation's military expansion as it did in the 1930s.

The major Western powers, such as the US, in the illusive hope of "balancing" China and "constraining" Russia, have given the green light to this. This dancing with a devil does not bode well for regional peace and stability.