According to Reuters, Japan is considering creating a government-backed financing arm for weapons exports, a move that would accelerate Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's shift away from the country's pacifist past and strengthen Tokyo's regional security ties as China's military power grows.
As a first step, the government plans to convene an advisory panel to consider specific proposals to create a way to finance military sales by Japanese firms and fund defense industry cooperation abroad, four people involved told Reuters.
One possibility to be considered is for a government-backed body to provide concessional financing for military projects modeled on the self-financing Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said the people involved.
They asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of talks on a move that would likely upset China, where memories of Japan's wartime past run deep and which has already criticized Abe's decision in April to end a decades-old ban on arms exports.
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