Japan’s Arms Merchants Are Off to a Rocky Start

When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government redrew Japan’s self-imposed arms export restrictions in 2014, it hoped to spark a revolution in a domestic defense industry that had been isolated for almost 40 years. In part, it succeeded. In June, Japanese companies such as Fuji and Kawasaki Heavy Industries displayed military helicopters and warplanes at the Maritime Air Systems and Technologies Asia exhibition in Tokyo – still a rare event for the pacifist nation – and foreign military buyers have expressed interest in everything from advanced military components to complex weapons systems such as the stealthy Soryu-class diesel-electric submarine and the ShinMaywa US-2 amphibious aircraft.

However, these new opportunities have been soured by a series of high-profile failures. Most notably, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, builder of the Soryu, lost a $40 billion Australian navy contract in April 2016 for 12 submarines. Such letdowns are to be expected in an industry as competitive as defense, but they also reveal problems unique to Japanese arms makers. For Abe, struggling to loosen the restrictions imposed by Article 9 of Japan’s pacifist Constitution and counter such potential adversaries as North Korea and China, a thriving arms industry is critical to deepening Japan’s regional security relationships.