Australia’s choice of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as its preferred supplier for a new batch of frigates marks a huge step in Japanese efforts to become a major arms exporter at a time of rising regional tensions and stretched defence supply chains.
But analysts warn that Japan will have to overcome production capacity and labour constraints to demonstrate it can offer a real alternative to the US, European and South Korean defence suppliers.
MHI’s $6.5bn frigate deal, which Tokyo and Canberra announced this week and expect to finalise early next year, would be the first international sale of a complete Japanese defence platform with lethal capabilities since the second world war and a model for future exports of warships, missiles and radar systems.