Commentary: Japan lifts ban on arms exports – can it construct the free world’s defence business? | UNW

GLOBAL BOOM IN DEMAND FOR ARMS

There is a global boom in demand for arms as democracies feel increasingly under threat, while capacity at existing manufacturers is constrained by the need to replace stockpiles depleted by the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

A new supplier, from a state increasingly viewed as the defender of Asia’s rules-based order and a leading figure in both heavy engineering and precision technology, is exactly what much of the world wants to see. Defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi said this week that Tokyo has received several expressions of interest.

Australia’s multi-billion-dollar deal to buy Mitsubishi Heavy Industries-built Mogami warships seems like the perfect advertising for the sector. New Zealand and Indonesia are also interested in buying the ships themselves. Reports in Taiwan even suggest that Tokyo might have eased restrictions on sharing warship blueprints with Taipei.

Palmer Luckey, the founder of US defence technology company Anduril Industries, last year in Tokyo showed off an advanced drone his company created using all-Japanese parts – something he said many thought was impossible without relying on the Chinese supply chain.

“Japan is one of the only countries in the world that can do it all on their own,” he said, “if they want to.”

Luckey’s last comment is key. No one doubts the nation has the skill. What it needs now is the will.

The government must take the lead: co-promoting sales abroad, changing how it configures procurement contracts to encourage investment, loosening restrictions on R&D in advanced sectors such as drones, and convincing firms to utilise their excess production capacity. The free world is waiting.