Japan Press Weekly

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2011 February 23 - March 1 [POLITICS]

Exporting military propellers undermines ban on arms trade

Editorial (excerpts)

Defense Minister Kitazawa Toshimi has announced that the government will sell propellers used in the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s boats to the United States. The U.S. government plans to use the equipment as parts for the C-27 transport aircraft it will give to the military of Afghanistan.

Arms exports prohibited

In order for the domestic arms industry to jointly produce and develop weapons with other nations, the Democratic Party of Japan-led government is accelerating its move to review the three principles that prohibit the nation from exporting arms components. Trading the MSDF’s propellers with the U.S. is part of the effort to undermine the national policy.

The Defense Minister stated that Japan will sell the military propellers to the U.S. in order to support the Afghan effort to reconstruct itself. He also revealed that the sale was first requested by the U.S. government. The remarks acknowledge that the export of the military equipment is to support the ongoing U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Fierce combat still continues in Afghanistan, causing many civilian casualties practically every day. Exporting military equipment to such a nation, even though it is via the United States, helps to maintain and develop the Afghan military’s attack capability and thus contributes to the ongoing war.

The Three Principles on Arms Exports were established with the aim of avoiding fomenting international disputes. Sending military parts to a country involved in combat operations is clearly in violation of the national principles as well as the war-renouncing Japanese Constitution, and therefore must be cancelled right away.

‘Merchant of death’

In response to business circles’ call for the ban on arms trade to be lifted, the government stated in the National Defense Program Guidelines it adopted in December that it will review the three principles. The move to turn Japan into a “merchant of death” must be blocked.