The government's new rule on export and international joint development of weapons that the Abe administration introduced last year by discarding a long-standing arms export ban is having concrete effects. Ahead of the Oct. 1 establishment of the Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency as an external bureau of the Defense Ministry, which not only handles development and procurement of weapons but also help with arms exports, Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), the nation's largest business lobby, proposed that the government push weapons exports as a "national strategy." Several universities have, meanwhile, applied for research funds provided by the Defense Ministry for development of dual-use technologies, and the ministry decided on funding for four of them as well as for companies and research institutes.

Keidanren's proposal could pave the way for increasing the portion of weapons production in Japan's economic output — which currently remains small — estimated at less than 1 percent of industrial production. The universities' moves could lead to their future dependence on funds from the Defense Ministry and their greater involvement in arms development and production — a move that could potentially undermine the openness of academic research and autonomy of universities. We need to monitor such developments to see if they lead to the creation of closer links among the Defense Ministry, industries and the universities, which exert a powerful influence over the nation's economic and academic activities.

The new Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency will be the nation's largest procurement entity, handling about ¥2 trillion a year or about 40 percent of the annual defense budget of nearly ¥5 trillion. It will directly procure equipment and logistics worth some ¥1.6 trillion, while overseeing the rest, which will be locally procured by the three branches of the Self-Defense Forces. Previously, weapons research and development activities were carried out by the Defense Ministry's Technical Research and Development Institute, while procurement was left in the hands of the SDF's three branches and bureaus of the ministry. The new agency, with 400 SDF members and 1,400 civilian defense officials, will deal with research, development and procurement of weapons in a unified way in an attempt to increase cost-effectiveness in these matters and to push integrated operation of weapons in the SDF's three branches.