An advisory panel on defence strategy to Japan's prime minister agreed on Tuesday a review of a government ban on weapon exports was needed to enable the industry to develop technology with other countries, media said.
The move comes ahead of a sweeping reassessment of Japan's defence strategy that the government plans to complete by the end of the year and less than a week after the most powerful business lobby urged the government to relax the ban.
Participants in the advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called for a review of the 1976 ban to enable Japan to develop weapons and military technologies jointly with other countries, especially the United States, Kyodo news agency said.
The 10-member panel plans to issue a report on its conclusions by the end of September. Government officials were not available to comment.
In 1967, Japan adopted a three-point policy against weapons exports that included a ban on arms exports to communist states.
The government tightened its policy in 1976 to ban exports of weapons to all countries, but in 1983 loosened the restrictions to allow exports of weapons technology to the United States.
Last week, the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) recommended the government relax the ban, saying it kept Japan from securing the world's top defence technologies, put it behind other countries in developing defence equipment and technology and isolated it from global security trends.
Declining budgets for equipment for Japan's military could shrink or wipe out the domestic defence industry when Japan is increasingly exposed to nuclear and missile threats from North Korea, it said.
Comments
Comments are closed.