Indo-Pacific — 2026-04-21

Japan's Takaichi cabinet scraps postwar ban on lethal arms exports, clearing fighter-jet, missile and warship sales to 17 partners

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's cabinet on April 21 approved removing the 1967/1976 arms export restrictions, allowing in principle the export of lethal systems (warships, missiles, fighter jets) to 17 partners with existing defense equipment and technology transfer agreements, with each sale requiring National Security Council approval. Takaichi said Japan will in principle not export lethal weapons to countries at war, with national-security exemptions permitted. The policy change follows Japan's April 18, 2026 US$6.5 billion contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for three Mogami-class frigates for the Royal Australian Navy, Japan's largest-ever defense export deal, with a total program of 11 frigates valued at AU$20 billion. China's Foreign Ministry warned the policy change represented "moves towards militarism."

Analysis
The cabinet decision converts a pending policy review into binding legal authority, opening a 30-day operational window for the first export-approval package, and hands Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki and Japan Marine United an NSC-gated path to frigate, missile and air-defense competitions that previously required US-brokered workarounds; the 17-country framework (corroborated across Al Jazeera, NPR, NBC and Japan Times) very likely produces a Philippines or Indonesia surface-combatant contract within 12 months. Takaichi's insertion of UN Charter compliance language is the diplomatic hedge that lets Tokyo continue refusing Ukraine supply requests while keeping Taiwan-adjacent partners accessible. That pivot also accelerates China-Japan military-industrial decoupling: Japanese primes previously indexed to a purely US-aligned demand signal now optimize for regional partner diversification, which likely draws MOFA into more aggressive export-control enforcement against third-country diversion over the next 18 months. Japanese primes' pricing has not been competitive with Korean and European rivals, leaving the possibility the policy shift lands as symbolic rather than a durable arms-market repositioning.

2 sources

Japan approves scrapping ban on lethal weapons exports in a change of its postwar pacifist policy - NBC News
In major policy shift, Japan scraps limits on lethal arms exports - The Japan Times