Japan eases arms export curbs to send Patriot missiles to US

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Japan plans to ease weapons exports curbs to allow several dozen domestically-produced Patriot air defence missiles to be shipped to the US, a move that will help Washington step up critical supplies to Ukraine.

Tokyo is also considering exporting to the UK 155mm artillery shells that it makes under licence from BAE Systems, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions, a plan also intended indirectly to aid Ukraine.

The arms exports would be permitted by a relaxation of Japan’s strict guidelines on arms deals that the government plans to announce on Friday. The relaxation is part of a more proactive defence policy that Japan adopted after it increased military spending plans last year.

The first change in the arms guidelines in almost a decade will not allow Japan to export military equipment directly to Ukraine. Instead, it will enable equipment to be exported to a country that provided the licence under which it was manufactured. Under existing rules, Tokyo can only export licensed components rather than entire systems. 

The people familiar with the discussions said that for several months, Washington had been asking Japan to allow the export of Patriot missiles manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries under licence from US defence contractors Lockheed Martin and RTX, formerly Raytheon Technologies. The exports would free up US stocks earmarked for the Indo-Pacific to be sent to Ukraine instead.

The Patriot air defence system is one of the most advanced weapons supplied so far to Kyiv by Washington.

The plans by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration come as US Congress has repeatedly failed to approve a $60bn aid package for Ukraine proposed by the White House. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, visited Washington this month in an effort to win more funding, but was rebuffed by Republicans in Congress.

“Japan has been the steadfast ally in the most critical moment for the US,” said one US government official.

Tokyo has said it will acquire hundreds of US-made Tomahawk cruise missiles from the fiscal year starting in April 2025, a year ahead of schedule.

Japan in 2014 overturned a longstanding ban on arms exports imposed under the pacifist constitution adopted after the second world war. But the remaining restrictions and long absence from global markets mean the country has struggled to establish a meaningful weapons business. 

Industry executives had been hopeful that Japan’s new fighter jet joint development programme with the UK and Italy would provide an opportunity for Tokyo to further ease export curbs and give its defence companies more access to foreign markets.  

But relaxation beyond the approval for licensed equipment has been opposed by Komeito, the ruling Liberal Democratic party’s coalition partner, which draws its support from Buddhist voters. The parties plan to continue discussions next year on a broader revision of the rules that would apply to the trilateral fighter jet programme. 

Because of the political sensitivity of any broader relaxation, US officials including US ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel have prioritised getting export clearance for the Patriot missiles. President Joe Biden raised the issue with Kishida at a trilateral summit with South Korea at Camp David in August and during a meeting with the Japanese prime minister in San Francisco last month.