{"id":9158,"date":"2026-04-21T06:24:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T06:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/9158\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T06:24:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T06:24:29","slug":"japan-pm-takaichis-cabinet-scraps-limits-on-lethal-weapons-exports-in-major-policy-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/9158\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan PM Takaichi\u2019s cabinet scraps limits on lethal weapons exports in major policy shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Japan<\/a> on Tuesday endorsed scrapping a ban on lethal weapons exports, in a major change of its postwar pacifist policy as the country seeks to build up its arms industry and deepen cooperation with defence partners.<\/p>\n

The approval by prime minister Sanae Takaichi<\/a>\u2019s cabinet of the new guideline clears a final set of hurdles for Japan\u2019s postwar arms sales.<\/p>\n

The move comes as the country accelerates its military buildup in the face of growing security challenges in the region. While the change of policy met with China<\/a>\u2019s criticism, it has been largely welcomed by Japan\u2019s defence partners like Australia<\/a> and attracted interests from Southeast Asia<\/a> and Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"(AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Opponents say the change violates Japan\u2019s pacifist constitution and will increase global tensions and threaten the safety of the Japanese people.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s transformation into one of the world\u2019s major defence spenders has developed over decades and raises the question of whether the ongoing buildup is a violation of its pacifist constitution.<\/p>\n

After World War II, Japan was not supposed to have a military.<\/p>\n

During the 1945-1952 US occupation, American officials wanted to stamp out the militarism that led to Japanese aggression across Asia before and during the war.<\/p>\n

Under Article 9 of the US-drafted 1947 constitution, Japan renounced the use of force to settle international disputes, and the right to maintain land, sea and air forces for that purpose.<\/p>\n

\"JAP\u00d3N-ARMAS\"JAP\u00d3N-ARMAS (AP)<\/p>\n

The US changed its mind about Japanese militarism when the Korean War started in 1950. Japan became an ally, not a threat, leading to the creation of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in 1954. Article 9 is now widely seen as the legal basis for Japan to have a sufficient military to defend itself.<\/p>\n

Japan has since repeatedly stretched the definition of self-defence, allowing overseas dispatches of its troops as part of international peacekeeping operations, though mostly avoiding combat missions.<\/p>\n

A big change came in 2014, under former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who wanted Japan to have a normal military. Abe newly interpreted Article 9 as legalising collective defense. The following year, a security law allowed Japan to use force if the United States or other friendly nations come under enemy attack, even if Japan is not being attacked.<\/p>\n

This was Abe\u2019s attempt to have a normal military without formally changing the constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6780,2840,8,33],"class_list":{"0":"post-9158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-defence","9":"tag-horizontal","10":"tag-japan","11":"tag-nihon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9158","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=9158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}