Asahi also reported that Japan plans to restrict exports to countries currently engaged in conflict, but could make exceptions in \u201cspecial circumstances\u201d, prioritising Japan\u2019s national security needs.<\/p>\n
Japan\u2019s Defence Ministry has said multiple countries have expressed interest in buying Japanese-made weapons, including Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Indonesia, amid a more competitive regional security landscape.<\/p>\n
The policy shift comes soon after Japan and Australia signed a US$7 billion agreement under which Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will build the first three warships for the Royal Australian Navy.<\/p>\n
The announcement also came amid reports that the prime minister sent an offering to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo during a festival period. The shrine, established in the 1800s to honour Japan\u2019s war dead, includes the names of more than 1,000 convicted Japanese war criminals from World War II, including 14 classified as \u201cClass A\u201d war criminals. Visits and offerings by Japanese officials have long drawn criticism in China, South Korea and other countries that suffered under Japan\u2019s wartime actions.<\/p>\n
Takaichi, often described as hawkish on China and sometimes dubbed Japan\u2019s \u201cIron Lady\u201d, has been among Japanese leaders in recent years backing a stronger security stance.<\/p>\n
China said it would oppose what it called Japan\u2019s \u201cirresponsible\u201d military build-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe international community, including China, will continue to closely watch this and resolutely oppose Japan\u2019s new form of irresponsible military build-up,\u201d said Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asahi also reported that Japan plans to restrict exports to countries currently engaged in conflict, but could make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[212,12,2658,2680,8,17,5704,358,2144],"class_list":{"0":"post-9332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-china","10":"tag-export","11":"tag-fighter-jet","12":"tag-japan","13":"tag-japanese","14":"tag-lethal-weapons","15":"tag-sanae-takaichi","16":"tag-world-war-ii"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9332","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=9332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}