by Tang Zhiyuan
Recently, the Japanese government officially revised "the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology" at the cabinet and related meetings. It scrapped the longstanding restriction limiting weapons exports to only five categories of noncombat equipment.
In principle, Japan is now able to export fighter jets, missiles and other lethal weapons, and even supply arms to countries involved in conflicts under specific conditions. Moreover, it has weakened prior approval, supervision and checks and balances, requiring only notifications to the Diet, or Japan's parliament, after approval by the National Security Council.
This move marks a drastic shift in Japan's security policy. It has completely lifted the post-war ban on Japan's arms export, and stripped away its disguise as a "peace-loving nation." With such a perilous stride down the path of remilitarization, Japan has triggered deep concern across the international community.
SACRIFICE UNDER SECURITY SHIFT
Since Sanae Takaichi took office, Japan's remilitarization has markedly picked up pace. To build up combat capability as fast as possible, Japan has drastically increased the frequency of military drills and shortened the equipment maintenance cycle. Such an impetuous pace of military expansion has led to a surge in safety accidents within the Self-Defense Forces.
Last December, a 23-kilogram training rocket missed its target at a Fukushima firing range and was not recovered until the next day, sparking panic among local residents. On the very day the arms export ban was lifted, a tank shell exploded at a training area of the Ground Self-Defense Force, leaving three dead and one injured.
These accidents also remind people of the data fraud scandal of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a major Japanese defense contractor. It was found that the company had falsified core performance data of submarine engines for decades and that the actual cruising range of active-duty submarines was merely 70 percent of their designed capacity. Given the quality of military equipment and intensity of training, fatal accidents are by no means coincidental.
Tragically, Self-Defense Force members, tasked with defensive missions under the pacifist Constitution, could have completed their service safely with normal retirement. Yet, because of Japan's systematic security policy shift, they now face drastically heightened operational risks, and endanger their lives to serve radical military agendas.
The damage to the lives and safety of service members is just the tip of the iceberg. For ordinary Japanese citizens, right-wing military build-up brings mounting risks of war. As the Self-Defense Forces pivot from defense to offense, and as Japan begins exporting lethal weapons to neighboring regions, the public faces a greater threat of being dragged into armed conflicts.
The economic costs, too, are impossible to overlook. Japan's defense budget has risen for 14 consecutive years, hitting a record high of over 9 trillion yen (about 57.5 billion U.S. dollars) for the 2026 fiscal year. In contrast, government funding for people's livelihoods, including social security, education and medical care, has increased at a much slower pace.
To cover massive military spending, the government plans to raise taxes or issue government bonds, forcing the Japanese people to pay for expansionist ambitions amid soaring prices and shrinking welfare benefits.
The removal of the lethal weapons export ban has met fierce opposition in Japan. According to an NHK opinion poll conducted in March, 53 percent of respondents opposed such exports, while a Kyodo News survey found that 56.6 percent of respondents were against the policy.
Prior to the official cabinet approval, more than 30,000 Japanese protesters rallied in front of the National Diet Building in Tokyo. Opposition parties, peace advocates and scholars across Japan have voiced grave concerns, warning that the move violates the spirit of the pacifist Constitution and risks dragging the nation back into the quagmire of war.
REGIONAL PEACE UNDERMINED
During World War II (WWII), Japan's military-industrial complex not only mass-produced weaponry for wars of aggression but also colluded in forced labor and other war crimes, fueling the country's militarist expansion overseas. Restrained by the pacifist Constitution, Japan's military industrial capacity has largely stayed dormant for decades after the war. Yet the country has still managed to build a full-fledged military-industrial system through the model of "military-civil integration."
The latest policy easing, combined with skyrocketing defense budgets, will fully revitalize Japan's military industrial capacity. Profit-seeking motives, intertwined with the rightward shift in politics and the rise of populism in society, will fuel Japan's ambition to become a major military power. As the gears of the military industry turn once more for the resurrection of militarism, the immense sufferings inflicted on Asian neighbors risk recurring.
Furthermore, Japan is leveraging arms exports to forge geopolitical military alliances and advance its plan for an "Asia-Pacific NATO." It has supplied coastal surveillance radar systems to the Philippines, signed large-scale arms deals with Australia, co-developed next-generation fighter jets with the United Kingdom and Italy, and sought integration into the AUKUS bloc.
Japan is also marketing military equipment across Southeast Asia, dispatching troops on a large scale to participate in U.S.-Philippine joint military drills, and deploying missile facilities at home with so-called preemptive strike capabilities.
Japan's security strategy has shifted from passive defense to proactive offense, standing in stark contrast to its self-proclaimed "dedication to peace" and "exclusively defense-oriented principle." Most dangerously, the new policy permits arms sales to countries involved in conflicts under specific circumstances, enabling Japan to substantively intervene in regional conflicts. This will inevitably trigger a regional arms race and heighten risks of conflicts, posing a tangible security threat to the region.
Japan's neighbors have voiced clear opposition. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed grave concerns, stating that Japan's accelerated remilitarization is already a reality with an actual roadmap and concrete steps and that the international community must stay on high alert and firmly reject the reckless moves of Japanese neo-militarism.
The Republic of Korea's Foreign Ministry urged Japan to uphold the pacifist Constitution and work for peace and stability in the region. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Russia also issued stern warnings against lifting the lethal arms export ban and expressed opposition to Japan's dangerous moves that undermine regional security and stability.
POST-WAR ORDER VIOLATED
The Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, the Japanese Instrument of Surrender and other documents with full legal effect under international law all explicitly require Japan to remain "completely disarmed" and not maintain industries that "would enable her to re-arm for war."
Japan's pacifist Constitution also contains strict restrictions on Japan's military strength, right of belligerency and right to war. After WWII, Japan further established stringent norms such as the "exclusively defense-oriented principle" to limit the development of military strength and the export of weapons.
Nevertheless, Japan's right-wing forces have repeatedly crossed the red line. From the Three Principles on Arms Exports, which strictly prohibited arms exports, to the loosened Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology, and now to the full removal of restrictions on arms exports, Japan is eroding the post-war international order and breaking the constraints of the pacifist Constitution.
Following a recent visit to Australia, Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi publicly claimed on social media that the camaraderie among military personnel is a major advantage in Japan-Australia relations, openly recognizing the Self-Defense Forces as a "military" and abandoning the last fig leaf of "exclusive defense." The Self-Defense Forces have long ceased to be what their name suggests.
For Japan's right-wing forces, the removal of the weapons export ban is merely the beginning. More dangerous moves, including constitutional revision and nuclear armament, may follow in quick succession, leaving Japan unstoppable on its remilitarization trajectory and posing severe risks to global peace.
History tells us time and again that those who play with fire will perish by it. Should Japan's right-wing forces insist on going down the beaten path of militarism and reckless expansion, they would inevitably repeat the mistakes of the past and face complete isolation and boycott from the wider world.
The international community must remain highly vigilant and never allow Japan's reckless remilitarization to once again undermine the foundations of regional stability and world peace.
Editor's note: The author is a commentator on international affairs.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Xinhua News Agency.