Arms show offers Japan venue to build military ties in Southeast Asia

ShinMaywa Industries

11/06/2017 08:05

By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo 
    TOKYO, June 11 (Reuters) - Defence firms will put out their 
wares on Monday at Japan's only dedicated arms show, a site for 
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government to promote industrial 
military ties that will bolster the country's influence in 
Southeast Asia. 
    Japan's defence ministry has invited Southeast Asian 
military representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, the 
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to a separate 
military technology seminar, aiming to ensure attendance for the 
three-day Maritime Air Systems and Technologies Asia (MAST) show 
near Tokyo, two sources said. 
    "The Ministry of Defence is hosting the seminar right after 
MAST closes," said one of the sources with knowledge of the 
plan. 
    Abe's government wants to make arms sales and military 
technology collaboration a new plank of Japanese diplomacy in 
Southeast Asia as it counters China's growing influence in the 
South China Sea. 
    About $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes through the 
strategic waterway each year, much of it to and from Japan.  
    In 2014, Abe ended a decades-old arms export ban, partly to 
cut procurement costs by widening arms production, but also, for 
the first time since World War Two, to allow Japan to offer arms 
technology as a lure for closer military ties. 
    The small Southeast Asian arms market is growing as economic 
growth boosts defense spending. Japan is likely push to back 
against China's offers to supply military equipment to the 
region. 
    "The only thing that really matters in Southeast Asia is 
cost and China will offer at low cost," said Paul Burton, 
director of aerospace, defence and security at IHS Markit in 
Singapore. 
    "They will quite happily give away the family jewels in 
terms of enabling indigenous production, training the local 
workforce and offset into other sectors." 
     
    LESS RELUCTANT 
    In their first outing at MAST Asia in 2015 Japanese firms 
were still reluctant to advertise their defence work to a public 
wary of any return to militarism. Only NEC Corp  6701.T  
exhibited alone, with other firms clustering together in a 
single display.    
    That hesitation seems to have eased. At least 16 Japanese 
firms are exhibiting alone, from leading arms maker Mitsubishi 
Heavy Industries   7011.T , to the maker of the sub-hunting P-1 
patrol jet, Kawasaki Heavy Industries  7012.T , and ShinMaywa 
Industries  7224.T , which builds the US-2 amphibious plane. 
    "We intend to showcase our wide range of products and 
technologies to event participants," said a spokesman for 
Mitsubishi Heavy. 
    Showcased items include a guided missile destroyer display, 
a prototype amphibious vehicle model, minehunting technology and 
demonstrations of a laser radar surveillance system. 
    The three-day show will include overseas exhibitors, such as 
F-35 stealth fighter maker Lockheed Martin Corp  LMT.N  and 
France's Thales SA  TCFP.PA , and will have double the floor 
space of the 2015 event, a spokeswoman for the organiser said. 
 
 (Reporting by Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Clarence 
Fernandez) 
 ((tim.kelly@thomsonreuters.com; +813-6441-1311;)) 
 
Keywords: JAPAN ASEAN/DEFENSE