The Japanese government's decision of scrapping restrictions on the export of lethal weapons will further escalate regional tensions and fuel an arms race, said a Chinese analyst.
The Japanese government on Tuesday officially revised "the three principles on transfer of defense equipment and technology" and their implementation guidelines to allow overseas sales of weapons, including those with lethal capabilities, local media reported.
The revisions scrap the rules that limit Japan's defense equipment exports to five noncombat categories, namely rescue, transport, warning, surveillance and minesweeping.
Instead, defense equipment will be divided into "weapons" and "non-weapons" categories, based on whether they have lethal or destructive capabilities, Kyodo News reported.
The revision maintains unrestricted exports of non-weapons such as warning and control radar systems, while allowing the export of weapons, including destroyers and missiles, previously prohibited, to countries that have signed agreements with Japan on protecting classified information related to defense equipment and technology.
"The changes mark a significant shift in Japan's defense policy since its defeat in World War II; it is in fact another attempt by the country's right-wing forces to pursue so-called "national normalization," which warrants high vigilance," said Meng Mingming, an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"In terms of intent, Japan's current economic slowdown, high fiscal deficit, severe population aging and long-standing limitations on military production capacity -- these realities clearly clash with the ambitions of Japanese right-wing forces to revive militarism and actively expand military buildup. Therefore, the Japanese government is seeking to ease its arms export policy to achieve multiple objectives," said Meng.
"By approving the export of offensive weapons, the Takaichi administration is, in effect, proactively providing other countries with lethal capabilities. This not only severely blurs the lines between defense and offense, but also signifies that Japan's national security policy has shifted from defending itself to supporting wars overseas, pushing the country further away from its signboard as a peaceful nation," he said.
Meng also emphasized that the policy would undermine regional stability.
"For Sino-Japanese relations and regional peace, the policy will further exacerbate regional tensions, significantly increase the risk of hotspot issues including the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, break the relatively stable postwar balance in East Asia after the war, and fuel an arms race," he said.
Japan's lifting of ban on lethal arms exports to escalate regional tensions, fuel arms race: analyst
