This year’s Japan’s Defense Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition and conference, held from May 21-23 at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo, was the largest ever, attracting 471 companies, 169 from Japan and 302 from the US, the UK and 30 other countries.
Reflecting the rapid advance of Japan’s arms industry and the country’s growing contribution to regional security and international military cooperation, this year’s event was about 60% larger than last year’s and about twice the size of the one held in 2023.
A year ago, US Forces Japan Strategic Relations Officer Tim Haffner noted that “DSEI brought industry, policy, and strategic leaders together in a collaborative forum to discuss regional security issues for the first time in Japan.
This was a pivotal event, signaling Japan as a leader in defense technology and security partnership.” This year’s turnout demonstrates that it most certainly was.
Billed as “the only large-scale, fully integrated defense event in the country,” the exhibition featured a very wide range of defense products, from ammunition and armored vehicles to communications and target identification systems, field medical supplies, and small, medium and heavy caliber weapons.
Models of Japan’s Mogami warship, underwater drones, railgun and Type-12 missiles attracted a lot of attention, as did the GCAP (Global Combat Air Program) next-generation fighter jet being developed by Japan, the UK and Italy. For Japan’s Ministry of Defence and defense industry, it was an unprecedented marketing opportunity.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba visited and spoke at the exhibition, the first sitting Japanese prime minister to do so. “We are currently facing the most severe and complex security environment since the end of the Second World War,” he said. “Today’s Ukraine could be East Asia tomorrow.”
Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani, who delivered a keynote address at the conference, said that he hoped the event would “provide a new opportunity for cooperation and exchange between national delegations and companies, help sustain defense industry development, drive innovation and promote peace and stability.”
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) executive Katsuyuki Nabeta told the press that, “With today’s increasingly uncertain security environment, I believe we must respond not just domestically, but with a broader international perspective. We are pleased to have the opportunity to showcase our technologies and reach a wider audience.”
MHI is the prime contractor for Mogami-class frigates and the leading Japanese company in the GCAP project. BAE Systems and Leonardo are its British and Italian counterparts.
The conference, which also ran for three days, also included presentations by senior defense officials, ambassadors and defense industry executives from Japan, the US, the UK, Italy, Germany, Australia and Singapore.
They addressed the issues of maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific, keeping pace with emerging threats, developing new technologies, strengthening the defense industrial base and enhancing defense industry cooperation, cybersecurity, the use of AI to improve decision-making on the battlefield and expanding surveillance capabilities in space.
One section of the conference was dedicated to the progress of the GCAP and related supply chain opportunities. Senior executives from the GCAP Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency and International Government Organization, Japan Aircraft Industrial Enhancement Co (the umbrella organization for Japanese participation in the project), BAE Systems and Leonardo spoke on this topic, demonstrating its importance.
In an article entitled “Doubts about Trump hang in background of weapons show,” Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported that an unnamed Japanese Defense Ministry source had said that “Trump’s unpredictability has created unease about relying on US-made weapons and security arrangements,” and that “European countries in particular are beginning to seek security that does not depend on the United States, and they are likely to move away from the US in arms trading.”
Speaking at the event, the German ambassador to Japan, Petra Sigmund, said that, “Germany is increasingly looking to Japan as an arms provider, whom we can trust as a co-developer with similar strengths and similar needs. Also, as a potential procurement partner, in order to be able to scale up production to cut time and to reduce cost.”
Sigmund added that Germany is particularly eager to collaborate in the development of “unmanned systems, drones, stand-off weapons, missiles, air defense, cyberspace, as well as maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.”
He also noted that, “Since 2021, Germany has gradually increased its security engagement here in the [Indo-Pacific] region. We have sent naval vessels, participated in multinational naval and air force exercises both in Japan, Australia and in India.”
Professor Mohd Faiz Abdullah, chairman of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies of Malaysia, provided a different perspective. The great powers, he said, are conducting “minilaterals,”which they claim are for “global governance, but it’s about containment really,” and “not conducive to peace and stability.”
The world, Abdullah concluded, is entering a period of “unfettered competition…where a lot of parties are going for the killing zone.”
But Lieutenant General Sir Tom Copinger-Symes, Deputy Commander of UK Strategic Command, stated that, “We must move beyond transactional relationships between defense and industry… We need to redraw the boundaries of national security… We now live in what we could describe as a state of persistent competition, punctuated by episodic crises, and under the constant shadow of potential major conflict… we must innovate together, or we will lose together.”
Meanwhile, on May 21, a symposium on the topic of Japan’s defense industry was held at the Global Front conference facility at Meiji University in Tokyo.
Led by military historian Professor Atsushi Koketsu, the symposium featured an address by Professor Christopher Hughes of the University of Warwick, UK, on the topic “Japan’s Defence Industrial Strategy and Fighter Aircraft Production: Striving for Tier-One Status.”
Starting with the observation that Japan has previously been seen as an exemplary model of a non-great power able to indigenize defence technology, Hughes stated that it clearly maintains this ambition.
Despite anti-militaristic constraints, including Article 9 of its Constitution, which renounces “war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes,” post-WWII limits on weapons production and arms export bans, Japan has consistently maintained the following rationales for defense production:
- Deterrence capabilities and specific defense needs
- Bargaining power in its alliance with the US and internationally
- Self-sufficiency and ability to respond to national emergencies
- Industrial policy through dual-use technology
Hughes emphasized that Japanese policymakers use “techno-nationalism” to avoid second-tier status.
At the same time, Japan limited its defense budget by embedding the defense sector into its civilian sector. This allowed it to avoid the creation of a military-industrial complex, but also led to fragmentation, inefficiency and low profitability, while export restrictions cut off access to international cooperation and markets.
Serious attempts to rectify these defects began with the adoption of “Three Principles on Defense Equipment Transfers” under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014.
These allowed arms transfers if they contributed to “the active promotion of peace, international cooperation, or Japan’s security,” provided they were not destined for countries involved in conflict, with onward shipment to third parties subject to Japanese government control.
The next big step in Japan’s military reform came in December 2022, when the cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida approved a new National Security Strategy.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcement noted that “the very foundation of the international order is being shaken and the world stands at a historic crossroads… [with Japan] finding itself in the midst of the most severe and complex security environment since the end of WWII…”
The new National Security Strategy was accompanied by two other documents, the National Defense Strategy and the Defense Buildup Program. The latter includes building up the capabilities of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in the areas of stand-off defense, integrated air and missile defense, unmanned defense and cross-domain capabilities, including ground, maritime, air, space, cyber and electromagnetic operations.
The Japanese government also committed itself to raising the defense budget from 1% to 2% of GDP by 2027, increased weapons systems procurement as a percentage of the budget, raised profit margins on defense contracts to stop private companies from abandoning the sector and stepped up defense cooperation with Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia.
Freed from previous limits, Japanese defense contractors began to actively pursue export contracts, some small – e.g., patrol boats for the Philippines and Vietnam – and some large. An attempt to sell Soryu-class submarines to Australia fell through. Attempts to sell Mogami-class frigates to Australia and Indonesia are underway.
Hughes also put considerable emphasis on GCAP, noting that it is an equal partnership with full technology sharing and “freedom to modify.” While others have expressed doubts, he believes that the British government is committed to the project, a view that received support at the Japan-Italy-UK leaders meeting last November.
Hughes has been pursuing the subject for a long time. More than 20 years ago, he published “Japan’s Re-emergence as a ‘Normal’ Military Power?” while his latest book is entitled “Japan as a Global Military Power: New Capabilities, Alliance Integration, Bilateralism-Plus.”
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