Japan selling Patriot missiles to US in break from self-defense policy

The Japanese government will sell Patriot air defense missiles to the U.S., marking Tokyo’s first foray into selling complete lethal weapons to allied nations since the post-World War II era.

Japan’s national security cabinet this week updated its export rules to allow for the shipment of completed weapons systems. Previously, only the transfer of components of those weapons was permitted.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, the chief Cabinet secretary for Japan’s executive branch, said Friday that the new rules would promote “peace and stability” in the Indo-Pacific and “enhance” the U.S. and Japanese alliance.

“From that perspective, it is significant,” he said at a press conference.

The sale of Patriot missiles could indirectly help the U.S. arm Ukraine against a Russian invasion. While Japan prohibits the transfer of its weapons to third-party countries involved in a conflict, getting more of the air defense systems would free up Washington’s inventory to assist Ukraine.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that the U.S. welcomed the decision to sell the Patriots.

“This decision will contribute to the security of Japan and to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region by ensuring that U.S. forces, in close cooperation with the Japan Self-Defense Forces, will continue to maintain a credible deterrence and response capability,” Sullivan said.

After the end of World War II, Japan shifted its policy to a limited self-defense force and a ban on arms exports.

Those export prohibitions were lifted for the first time in 2014, when Japan decided it would allow for certain arms transfers, provided the countries receiving the arms are not “communist blocs,” in a state of war or under United Nations restrictions.

With tensions rising across the Indo-Pacific region between the U.S., Japan and other allies and adversaries like North Korea and China, Tokyo has now shifted away from its decades of pacifism.

Last year, Japan announced a national security strategy that allows the nation to conduct counterstrike capabilities, a major reversal from its previous policies of limited self-defense.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has also expanded Japan’s military budget under a five-year plan that began last year.

The next fiscal year budget preliminarily approved this week surges defense spending by 16 percent and accelerates Japan’s efforts to deploy long-range cruise missiles and to buy more American weapons, such as F-35 combat jets.