Japan not considering supplying weapons to Ukraine, government says

The Japanese government is not currently considering supplying weapons to Ukraine as part of its support for Kyiv, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters.

“At this time, the government is not considering the possibility of providing weapons to Ukraine,” he said in response to questions about Ukrainian Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi’s earlier remarks to Japan’s Kyodo news agency that Kyiv was counting on weapons supplies from Japan, including interceptor missiles for air defence systems.

At the same time, Kihara noted that Japan had already provided Ukraine with “support in the form of bulletproof vests, vehicles and other equipment from the Ministry of Defence and the Self-Defence Forces.”

The Japanese chief cabinet secretary pledged that Tokyo would continue to “promote public-private support for Ukraine’s reconstruction in close cooperation with the international community in order to strengthen its socioeconomic resilience.”

On April 21, the Japanese government officially approved a decision to revise the so-called Three Principles on Transfer of Defence Equipment and Technology. The move effectively lifted restrictions on the export of Japanese weapons, including equipment classified as lethal.

By Jeyhun Aghazada