Japan Can Build the Free World’s Defense Industry

Japan’s decision to lift restrictions on the export of lethal arms has many hoping the country can be the defense supplier to the world. Ending this decades-old taboo would have been politically unthinkable just a decade ago. Nonetheless, this is the easy part.

The real task now will be growing the defense industry quickly enough to be competitive and relevant amid a surge in global demand. Given the sector has suffered from decades of underinvestment, and Japan’s urgent need to boost military spending, Tokyo must work fast to meet its own requirements, much less anyone else’s.