Next Generation: Geoeconomics, cooperation and Japan’s defence industry

CSDS POLICY BRIEF • 1/2023

By Nanae Baldauff

19.01.2023

Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom have committed themselves to co-develop a next-generation fighter aircraft. While Japan remains isolated in international defence markets despite its efforts since 2014, there are signs that Tokyo is emerging with its own credible defence-industrial base. Japan now has the opportunity to make its own manufacturing defence-industrial base competitive and attractive against the background of supply chain disruptions and global high-tech competition. However, Japan still faces many challenges including a reluctance by its academic community to be part of the defence ecosystem, the siloed bureaucracy, the lack of multinational defence-industrial cooperation experience and Japanese producers’ continued integration in the Chinese market. That said, with Japan’s political determination, the country is set to be the indispensable manufacturing defence-industrial base for the Indo-Pacific region.

CSDS Policy brief_2301.pdf (388.93 KB)

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