Japanese Arms Export Ban

From 1967 to 2014 Japan essentially banned arms exports. This ban was lifted in 2014.^[1]

Vietnam war

As it had done during the Korean War in the 1950s, during the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Japan sold a large amount of materials to US forces. In 1966, it was reported by the Xinhua News Agency that up to 92% of the napalm being used in Vietnam was manufactured in Japan, and Nippon Yushi Corporation in Aichi prefecture was suspected. The company denied it was producing napalm, but the secretary-general of the plant's union stated that "almost anyone" could produce napalm using the chemicals produced by the company. The Mainichi Shimbun found no proof that napalm bombs were being produced in Japan, but in 1966, the US did ask for 4,000 Korean-war era napalm bombs at a former US Air Force base to be handed back.^[2]

Original principles

Three Principles on Arms Exports are three principles adopted by the National Diet of Japan in 1967, dealing with situations in which arms cannot be exported from Japan.

The three principles were that arms exports were not allowed to go to:

1. Communist bloc countries
2. Countries under arms exports embargo under United Nations Security Council resolutions
3. Countries involved in or likely to be involved in international conflicts^[3]

Increasing of restrictions

In 1976, the government of Japan announced that arms exports not restricted by the three principles would also be restrained.^[3] Aside from some technology transfers to the United States Japan banned arms exports. However, after the Japan Air Self-Defense Force retired their Lockheed F-104J/DJ Starfighter aircraft 36 of them were provided to the Taiwanese Air Force.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

Loosening of restrictions

In April 2014, the total ban on arms exports was ended by the government of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.^[9][10] Following this Japan made moves to sell Sōryū-class submarines to Australia^[11][12] and Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft to the United Kingdom,^[13][14] but these attempts were not successful.

Two retired MH-53E helicopters of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force were sold to the US in 2015, for their components. The US was running short of parts for its own fleet of the aging aircraft.^[15][16]

The JMSDF planned to lease at least five TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines to conduct maritime patrols.^{[17][18][19][20]} From November 2016, to November 2017, six Philippine Navy pilots were trained to fly the aircraft at Tokushima Airport. Maintenance staff were also trained.^[21][22][23] Two aircraft were transferred free of charge in March 2017,^[24] and three more were be transferred in 2018.^[25] The aircraft were ultimately donated rather than leased.^[26]

There are also efforts to sell the ShinMaywa US-2 military flying boats to India,^[27][28] and New Zealand expressed some interest in the Kawasaki C-2 aircraft and the Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft.^[29] New Zealand ultimately chose the P-8 Poseidon instead of the Kawasaki P-1.^[30] In 2016, there were efforts to sell an air-defense radar manufactured by Mitsubishi to Thailand,^[31] which did not succeed.^[32]

There are also attempts to sell the C-2 to the United Arab Emirates.^[33][34][35]

The Ground Self-Defense Force retired its UH-1H helicopters in 2012. The Philippines had planned to buy 16 new Bell 412 EPI helicopters from Canada, but the deal collapsed. Canada was concerned about how the helicopters would be used.^[36] In 2017, Japan offered to supply around 40,000 spare parts for UH-1H aircraft to the Philippines.^[37][38] In 2018 it was announced that Japan would supply the parts to the Philippines free of charge.^[39]

The SDF Law was amended to allow the transfer of JSDF equipment for lower prices than the current prices when the JSDF bought them before.^[40]

References