The “three principles” of 1967 Long. Japan, who had pronounced a certain form of disarmament for decades, especially when refusing to export their weapons abroad or almost take a turning point.
The Minister of Defense, Gen Nakatani, thus defended in the Japanese press his desire to strengthen archipelago’s exports; Prime Minister Shigeru ishiba has decided to go to Dsei Japan, an exhibition show dedicated to Défense, becoming the first boss to go there.
Until now, the military team has been reserved for the Japanese defense base, under a pacifist doctrine inherited from World War II. Only technology transfers to the United States were authorized and considered safe. Logically, Japan only represented 0.1% of world sales of weapons in 2024, according to the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace deach Institute), when its Korean and Chinese neighbors weigh for 3.3 and 3.9%.
“Proactive contribution” and doubts against the United States
But since 2013, Tokyo has developed a new doctrine, implementation of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The “proactive peace maintenance contribution” has consisted of the development of interoperability between the Japanese team and the military team of its allies. It is a question for a decade for Japan to maintain your team as your western allies and create common training.
The problem is that Japan has suffocated part of his military knowledge by refusing to export. Experts thus qualify the state of the Japanese team as “very bad”, since the industrial fabric has partially disappeared, and that maintenance deteriorates. Tokyo has actually achieved a lot over the United States to develop its defense base, buying, for example, a large number of F-35 aircraft or SPy-7 radars.
However, this cooperation with the United States is now returning against the archipelago, which would have lost 100 of its defense companies in 20 years. The geopolitical context also invites it to prudence: with the warl attitude of Washington and its questioning of multilateralism, particularly through attacks against NATO, Japan can no longer rely on US forces.
Germany, Japan … Pacifists highlight the knives
An analysis shared by several countries, especially European: Germany, however, traditionally opposite to the constitution of an Arsenal, has exploited its “debt block” to increase its particular military expenses; The United Kingdom has announced 1.5 billion pounds for the construction of ammunition factories, in the square of a wider plan quantified at 15 billion pounds.
The European Union, IT, awaits 800 billion euros for its preparation plan2030, presented by Ursula von der Leyen in March 2025. It must impose on the Member States the recovery of their defense expenses.
As for NATO, finally, it wants to discuss the terms of collaboration among its members: the National Defense Ministries discussed a coordinated increase in expenses in early June, to 5% of the GDP of each country, a figure claimed by Washington.
Since the beginning of the year, European defense companies have been acclaimed in the stock market: +187% for Rheinmetall, or +78% for Thales. The same dynamic affects Asian companies, especially Korean (+165% for Hanwha Aerospace). On the contrary, American gunners are fighting: barely +6% for Northrop Grumman, and even -3% for Lockheed Martin.
Source: BFM TV
