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Japan To Draw Up New Strategy To Beef Up Defense Industry, Exports

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Japan has started devising a strategy to strengthen its defense industry and promote exports of equipment, hoping to lay out medium to long-term goals for a sector that has struggled with small market scale and other challenges, government sources said Friday.

The so-called national defense industry strategy may be compiled next year. The planning will involve not only the Defense Ministry but also others such as the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry, making the process different from the strategy the Defense Ministry came up with in 2014 on defense production and technological bases.

The new strategy is expected to encourage collaboration among businesses, government and academia by showing the future direction of the necessary technology and production bases, according to the sources.

The move is in line with the 2022 National Security Strategy, which pledged to advance defense production and technology bases, describing them as "defense capabilities themselves."

In the document, which was updated amid the security challenges posed by China and North Korea, the government also said the transfer of defense equipment and technology is "a key policy instrument" to create a "desirable" security environment for Japan and to provide assistance to countries facing the fear of the use of force.

Based on long-term policy guidelines, Japan has gradually eased its strict rules on defense equipment transfers, which had been maintained under its war-renouncing Constitution.

The government's focus on reinvigorating the domestic defense industrial base is a boon for the sector, which has faced low profitability with sales channels limited to the Self-Defense Forces as well as a series of withdrawals from smaller companies.

To forge the new national defense industry strategy, the government also plans to set up a panel of experts to look into issues such as which industrial fields and technologies should be maintained and strengthened, and resilient supply chains should be built, according to the sources.

The strategy is expected to be revised every five years.

Major global powers have renewed their awareness of the importance of the resilience of their defense industries amid Russia's prolonged full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which has underscored the importance of weapons and ammunition supplies.

In January, the United States released its first Defense Industrial Strategy, which laid out long-term priorities to shore up its industrial base amid the military buildup seen by its adversaries.

The European Union also announced in March its first-ever defense industrial strategy, setting goals such as procuring at least 40 percent of its necessary defense equipment in a "collaborative manner" by 2030.
 
 

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