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Japan s Hidden Arms Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Robin Ballantyne
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The 2004 government announcement that it was considering joining the US in the production of a missile defence system was deeply troubling to Japanese and Asians concerned about Japan's expansive military posture in tandem with the US. Over the years, Japan has created a high tech non-nuclear military force. But it has steadfastly maintained an official ban on weapons exports. Many feared that the move heralded the end of Japan's nearly 40-year-old ban on arms exports.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 11 , November 2005 , e8
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

[1] Japan's Policies on the Control of Arms Exports http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/un/disarmament/policy/ accessed 22 November 2005

[2] Sugiura Seikin, Senior Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Speech to the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, 9 July 2000

[3] Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary 10 December 2004

[4] Japan Signals Key Military Shift www.dailytimes.com.pk 11 December 2004

[5] Japan to enforce arms reduction policy accessed 7 March 2005 & Government of Japan's National Report on the Implementation of Programme of Action (PoA) to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects accessed 17 July 2003

[6] Speech by Ambassador Amano Yukiya, Director-General for Arms Control and Scientific Affairs accessed 17 July 2003

[7] Inoguchi Kuniko, former Japanese ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament, Asahi Shimbun, 20 September 2004

[8] Weapons at War: Small Arms Survey 2005 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005), p102-105

[9] National Report on the Implementation of Programme of Action (PoA) to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects 22 November 2005

[10] Information from article Kalashnikov Saiga-12S shotgun is tailored for tactical requirements, Jane's International Defence Review, 1 May 2002

[11] War on Terror Fuels Small Arms Trade, The Guardian, 10 October 2003

[12] A Catalogue of Failures: G8 Arms Exports and Human Rights Violations,

[13] Figures used in this article all come from the Comtrade data available on the website of the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (NISAT)

[14] Saab Bofors to lead NLAW Jane's Defence Industry, 1 July 2002

[15] The ever-clearer view from above International Defense Review 1 September 2004

[16] The ever-clearer view from above International Defense Review 1 September 2004

[17] Assistant Manager, Godo Tadoroko quoted in Jane's Defence Weekly, 25 August 2004.