U.S. urges Japan to export SM-3s

.S. urges Japan to export SM-3s ^ | 10/25/2009 | Kyodo News

[sonofstrangelove]

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked Japan last week to export a new type of ship-based missile interceptor under joint development by Tokyo and Washington to third countries, presumably European, sources close to Japan-U.S. relations said.

Gates' request could lead to a further relaxation of Japan's decades-long arms embargo and spark a chorus of opposition from pacifist elements in the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and one of its coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party.

Gates made the request concerning Standard Missile-3 Block 2A missiles during talks with Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa on Wednesday, the sources said.

The SM-3 Block 2A missile, an advanced version of the SM-3 series, is to be deployed on warships.

Japan has a policy of not exporting weapons or arms technology, except to the United States, with which it has a bilateral security pact.

Gates' request followed President Barack Obama's announcement in September that the United States is abandoning plans for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe and adopting a new approach to antimissile defense.

[mamelukesabre]

Aw crap. Now they’re gonna run our weapons industry out of business too?

I don’t care if japan is a dying people that won’t reproduce. in 25 years they are gonna own the robotics industry and now it looks like the weapons industry as well. They will probably own the alternative energy industry and the space age energy storage(batteries) industry too.

the future seems to be toyota and sony and some sharp, casio, and honda. The rest of the world will be making plywood, cornflakes, and razorblades and selling mutual funds.

[gaijin]

Wow...I can see this coming from miles away.

In normal countries, one domestic side favoring export would advance arguments and put pressure on the other domestic side opposing such export, right?

But NOT in Japan, no:

Instead, those Japanese hawks favoring export will turn to the doves and say, “Oh, we think you’re soooo groovy, but see, it’s just that we have these big, bad, nutty Americans insiiiiisting that we export, and....we have to accommodate those crazy nuts, right...?”

In Japan, there is debate, sure, but they never DEBATE stuff that you can excuse awa on PRESSURE ON THE HAPPY rate, GROUP FROM THE SCARY, UNPREDICTABLE OUTSIDE.

At any rate, not only will we soon see substantially greater Japanese defense expenditures, but eventually we WILL see weapons export from Japan.

[gaijin]

If the only issue at hand was SM-3 export to Europe, why would the USA simply not do it themselves? Indeed, profits would be higher if we did, right?

The likely reason is —if you can believe this— some Japanese bureaucrats/politicians/industry folks asked the USA to ASK JAPAN to do this.

And that’s cuz there’s incredible bureaucratic inertia there —part of it is cultural, and part of it is political paralysis.

It does not really make sense that the USA would not simply initiate such exports itself —unless that was not the real problem.