The Japanese government is pursuing a revision of its defense equipment transfer guidelines to allow lethal weapon exports in principle and is reportedly reviewing a plan to notify parliament only after the fact.
On Wednesday, local media cited multiple government and ruling party sources reporting that the government has included in its draft a process under which the National Security Council (NSC) would decide whether to approve lethal weapon exports, with parliament receiving only post-facto notification. The Mainichi Shimbun assessed that this is expected to provoke strong backlash from opposition parties, which have demanded stronger checks such as prior parliamentary reporting.
The government plans to present its proposal at a meeting of senior officials from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's security research committee in June, and aims to complete the guideline revision within this month. The core of the proposed revision is to abolish the current restrictions that limit defense equipment exports to five categories — rescue, transport, patrol, surveillance, and minesweeping — and to permit exports of lethal weapons such as missiles and frigates in principle.
Japan had effectively banned arms exports for decades under the pacifism enshrined in Article 9 of its constitution. That changed during the second administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, when the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment were introduced in 2014, allowing exports in areas with limited direct relevance to combat.
Since then, Japan has gradually eased restrictions by expanding exemptions, but exports of lethal weapons had remained restricted in principle.