Japanese Weapons Are Open for Export
Peter Zeihan
4 min
Japan's new ability to export weapons combined with its robotic society will make it a massive drone power. We are utterly unprepared for what it means when the Japanese take a lead in that sector.
Chapters
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0:00
Japan's New Weapon Export Capability
Japan has changed its legal structures to export weapons for the first time since World War II. Japan's defense spending has risen to just under 2% of GDP as China becomes a threat. Japan is one of the most technologically advanced cultures with the fastest rate of change in technology and manufacturing. Japan will focus on exporting ships, especially small ships, to its 20 allied countries.
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1:58
Phase Two: Drone Warfare Dominance
Japan's aging population and robotic strategy will lead to massive drone production and export. Japan established a national robot strategy 15 to 20 years ago to automate parts of their economy. A deal is already in place between the Japanese and the Ukrainians to bring Japanese production capacity to Ukrainian drone tech. Japan will become a massive drone power producing drones in mass and exporting them soon. The world is utterly unprepared for what it means when the Japanese take a lead in drone warfare.
Key points
- 0:00
The Japanese changed their legal structures so they can now, for the first time since World War II, export weapons.
- 0:00
Japan is one of the most technologically advanced cultures with the fastest rate of change in technology and manufacturing in human history.
- 0:00
The obvious one is ships, especially small ships. And they've already cut a number of deals, including with, say, Australia, to churn more ships out of their shipyards and get them out there.
- 1:58
You mate that with what is going on in this second phase of the revolution in military affairs, and all of a sudden some really interesting things can come out of the drone world because when it comes to actuators and things like that, the Japanese have been doing it for decades.
- 1:58
So we now have a deal in place already between the Japanese and the Ukrainians to bring Japanese production capacity to Ukrainian drone tech.
- 1:58
And now they have export capacity. So I don't know what they're going to look like, but we're going to have Japanese-built drones produced in mass and exported in mass in the not too distant future.
- 1:58
We are only at the very beginning of understanding what drone warfare means in general.
- 1:58
We are utterly unprepared for what it means when the Japanese take a lead in that sector.
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