{"id":15447,"date":"2026-05-01T13:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T13:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/15447\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T13:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T13:49:15","slug":"ukraine-sees-path-to-getting-japanese-arms-after-tokyo-eases-export-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/15447\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine sees path to getting Japanese arms after Tokyo eases export rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan\u2019s relaxation of its weapons-export rules opens a path for talks that could one day lead to Tokyo supplying military equipment to help Ukraine resist Russia\u2019s invasion, Kyiv\u2019s ambassador to Japan<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis allows us to talk,\u201d Yurii Lutovinov said in an interview at Ukraine\u2019s embassy. \u201cTheoretically, it\u2019s a very big step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a>\u2019s move last week to ease export rules \u2013 Japan\u2019s latest shift away from a strict post-war pacifist stance \u2013 has sparked broad \u200cinterest as conflicts in Ukraine<\/a> and the Middle East strain Western arms production.<\/p>\n

While the overhaul maintains controls on exports to conflict zones, it allows exceptions that serve Tokyo\u2019s security interests, a caveat Kyiv hopes to benefit from.<\/p>\n

Japan has linked Ukraine\u2019s fate to its own security as it faces China\u2019s growing military power. With Japanese territory stretching to within 110km (70 miles) of Taiwan, Tokyo worries that any attempt by Beijing to seize the island could draw it into a conflict.<\/p>\n

Soon after Russia launched the war against its smaller neighbour in 2022, Japan\u2019s then-prime minister, Fumio Kishida, warned that \u201cUkraine today could be East Asia tomorrow\u201d. He approved Japan\u2019s biggest \u2060military build-up since World War II, a plan Takaichi has accelerated since taking office in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s relaxation of its weapons-export rules opens a path for talks that could one day lead to Tokyo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[923,12,374,12487,896,1180,8,12179,449,1474,636,358,488,3282,12486],"class_list":["post-15447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-east-asia","tag-european-continent","tag-fumio-kishida","tag-indo-pacific","tag-japan","tag-kyiv","tag-middle-east","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-taiwan","tag-ukraine","tag-yurii-lutovinov"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}