Japan joins weapons market after 44 years ban

The Japanese weapons industry is, at the moment, highly outdated as a ban installed in 1970 forbids any weapon exports.

The ban ‘has resulted in an isolated Japanese defense industry that produces very small quantities at very high cost,’ says Lance Gatling, president of Nexial Research, a defense consulting company in Tokyo.

While Japan was holding ground, its Asian neighbors took advantage of the country’s absence from the international weapon market and, therefore, gained profit.

South Korea exported, in 2013, $3.4 billion worth of weapons, up $1.2 billion since 2010.

China, on the other hand, is the big winner, taking the fourth place in the world’s largest weapon exporter, leaving France and Great Britain behind. The podium for this kind of market is held by the US, Russia and Germany.

But now things may change for Japan as, staring with April, it no longer has a ban on weapons export.

Even though the country will not tackle with the construction of entire weapon systems such as jets or aircraft carriers, Japan does have a name for making high-end components, especially electronics.

‘You may have fighter jets and warships from different manufacturers, but the electronics inside those ships and planes have to be able to communicate and share data with each other. What you really care about are the electronics inside, and that’s what Japan does best,’ says Robbin Laird, a defense industry consultant.

Japan now has a chance to prove itself as it has acquired 42 of Lockheed Martin’s joint strike fighters. The machines will be assembled almost entirely at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plant in Nagoya.