Japan Eyes Joint Production on U.S. Missiles

Reuters via NYT ^ | November 24, 2003 | N/A

[TigerLikesRooster]

Japan Eyes Joint Production on U.S. Missiles - Report By REUTERS

Published: November 24, 2003

Filed at 3:38 a.m. ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has plans for joint production of new interceptor missiles with the United States, a move that would require a review of Tokyo's decades-old ban on weapon exports, a Japanese newspaper said on Monday.

The Defense Ministry wants to start production of some key parts for the next-generation missiles, which Japan is researching with the United States for a missile defense system, as soon as within the next few years, the Asahi Shimbun said.

Such joint production would aim to make Japan's defense-related technology more competitive, it said.

Asahi said the issue of joint production came up in talks between Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Tokyo this month, and that Ishiba explained that Japan's ban on weapon exports was an obstacle.

Joint production means Japan would provide parts it has made to the United States and would require a review of the existing ban, which only allows arms-related exports to the United States and then only in the form of technology, the newspaper said.

Defense Ministry officials could not be reached for immediate comment.

In 1967 Japan adopted a three-point policy against weapon exports that included a ban on arms exports to communist states.

The government tightened its policy in 1976 to ban exports of weapons to all countries, but in 1983 loosened its stance to allow exports of weapon technology to the United States.

Worries about North Korea's nuclear arms program have re-ignited calls within Japan to rethink its past pacifism, stemming from the country's U.S.-drafted constitution that renounces war as a means of settling international disputes.

Japan has done joint research with the United States on developing a missile defense system after North Korea fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan in 1998.

The Defense Ministry requested more than a billion dollars in funding in August for a two-stage U.S. missile defense system. The spending proposal must be approved by parliament.

[never4get]

Ahhhhh, the Japanese have yet to unleash their secret weapon!!!!

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down
North Korean Troops on a dirty ol'train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them
He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh no, they say he's got to go go go Godzilla
Oh no, there go the communist scum go go go Godzilla

History shows again and again
How Japan will point up the folly of a North Korean mad man
History shows again and again
How Japan will point up the folly of a North Korean mad man

-Soft White Underbelly a/k/a Blue Oyster Cult
(with a little self liberties taken on the song)