By Tim Kelly and John Geddie
TOKYO, April 15 (Reuters) – Japan has spent the past decade steadily dismantling some of the world’s toughest arms export restrictions as it steps back from the postwar pacifism that shaped its security policy.
Here are the key events:
2014 – Then-prime minister Shinzo Abe ends a near-blanket ban on arms exports in place since 1976, allowing some transfers for humanitarian assistance and international cooperation seen to enhance Japan’s security, as well as joint development programmes.
2016 – The Philippines leases five used TC-90 trainer aircraft for maritime patrols over the disputed South China Sea, marking the first significant military equipment transfer since the rule change.
2016 – In an early setback for Tokyo’s export ambitions, Australia rejects a Japanese government-backed $40 billion bid by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to supply advanced diesel submarines. Canberra picks a rival French design.
2020 – Mitsubishi Electric becomes the first Japanese company to sell newly manufactured defence equipment overseas with a deal to supply air-surveillance radars to the Philippines.
2022 – Japan joins Britain and Italy in the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) to build an advanced stealth fighter jet by the mid-2030s, marking its first major joint defence project without the United States.
2023 – Tokyo establishes Overseas Security Assistance (OSA), a mechanism to provide military aid to like-minded countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. That programme has delivered patrol boats to Indonesia and Bangladesh, drones to Tonga and Sri Lanka and radar systems to Djibouti and the Philippines.
2023 – Japan loosens its 2014 export rules for the first time to allow equipment built under licence to be sold back to the country of origin. That change enabled MHI to supply Patriot air defence missiles to the United States, indirectly helping Washington arm Ukraine.
2024 – Another tweak is made a few months later to allow future overseas sales of the GCAP fighter as long as exports to countries involved in conflicts remain off limits.
2025 – In what will be Japan’s biggest-ever military export, Australia selects an upgraded version of MHI’s Mogami-class frigate in a $7 billion, 11-ship order to replace its ageing Anzac-class warships.
2025 – Japan in December said it will double OSA funding to nations, including some facing maritime pressure from China.
2026 – Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling party in April recommends scrapping limits that confine arms sales to five categories: transport, relief and rescue, early warning systems, surveillance and mine clearance. The changes, which her government is expected to approve as soon as this month, maintain a ban on conflict zone exports except in extraordinary cases.
(Reporting by Tim Kelly and John Geddie; Editing by Katerina Ang)
Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.
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