The Japan Times reported that Japan’s ruling coalition had approved the export of the future fighter jet to be rolled out of the multi-national GCAP programme. The coalition members had a months-long dispute over the case of exporting the fighter jet to third countries. To clarify, third countries are regarded as non-partner countries of the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), which currently includes the U.K., Japan, and Italy. As reported by Nikkei, the LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) pushed to change the guidelines to allow for the export of next-generation fighter jets to be developed under the GCAP programme. LDP’s primary reasons for the push included countering China by supplying friendly countries with fighter jets.
However, LDP has faced objections from Komeito, the coalition partner. Komeito members were worried about Japanese weapon systems being used in wars by pointing out the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Despite the projections and concerns in the coalition, both parties agreed to discuss the subject. After the discussions, it was declared that the fighter jet would be allowed to be exported to countries that have signed defence cooperation agreements with Japan.
The end of 2023 can be described as the point of beginning for Japan’s ramp-up in defence industry activities on the global plane. While the discussions were ongoing for the approval of the new fighter jet’s export, Japan approved the supply of air defence missiles for the American MIM-104 Patriot air defence system.
