With defense contractors both donating to and advising the government, Japan is rapidly turning from a pacifist nation into a military industrial complex.

“Minister of Defense, why is the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries chairman included here? What role do you expect him to play?”

It was a meeting of the Budget Committee of the Japanese Diet’s upper house in March 2024, and Diet member Kiyomi Tsujimoto of the Constitutional Democratic Party was addressing Minister of Defense Minoru Kihara.

The previous month, the Ministry of Defense had established an “Expert Panel on Fundamental Reinforcement of Defense Capabilities,” chaired by Keidanren Honorary Chair Sadayuki Sakakibara. With previous experience as chairman of Toray Industries, Sakakibara had served as Keidanren chairman during the Shinzo Abe administration.

Also appointed to the expert panel was Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Chairman Shunichi Miyanaga. MHI was receiving significant orders for weapons and other military equipment from the government, which Tsujimoto viewed as a conflict of interest.

“Prime Minister, the government has placed orders [to MHI] totaling 1 trillion yen again this fiscal year. I believe it would be better to refrain from appointing this kind of interested party to the expert panel on defense measures, even if he is a highly respected individual, to avoid any potential criticism, which could reflect poorly on MHI as well. What is your view?” she asked.

However, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida disagreed in his response.

“Considering the overall composition of the panel, I don’t believe it’s unnatural to include individuals involved in the defense industry in order to hear their perspective,” he said.

Diet member Tsujimoto then brought up MHI’s donations to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). She asked how much MHI had donated to the political funding organization “National Political Association,” which accepts corporate and group donations for the Liberal Democratic Party.

Prime Minister Kishida replied that MHI had given 33 million yen annually from 2020 to 2022. He added that he would only respond regarding those three years, saying, “I will respond within the scope of the political fund reports currently available to the public.” The law stipulates that political fund reports must be retained for three years. However, according to data Tansa collected from official notices, MHI’s total donations from 1990 to 2022 amounted to 820.46 million yen.

Diet member Tsujimoto criticized the situation.

“Ultimately, it’s totally a kickback system: Stakeholders who stand to profit participate in meetings on defense policy, a matter of national importance, and they are then awarded massive contracts, with the LDP receiving donations in return. This isn’t right, and it’s precisely why we are calling for a ban on corporate and group donations,” she said.

More and more

The expert panel — chaired by former Keidanren Chairman Sakakibara, and which included MHI Chairman Miyanaga — is asking the government to consider increasing defense spending. Defense spending is already set to total 43 trillion yen over the five-year period from fiscal year 2023 to fiscal year 2027 — already a 60% increase over the previous five-year plan. The expert panel is requesting even more.

The process has already begun — as shown in the table below, government orders to defense contractors significantly increased from 2022 to 2023. MHI saw its total purchase order amount increase by 4.6 times, to 16.803 trillion yen.

The LDP is allowing Japan’s military-industrial complex to grow unchecked. By continually accepting industry demands alongside their donations, Japan’s identity as a “pacifist nation” has finally cracked. This turning point was made clear on Dec. 16, 2022, when the government approved three policy documents on defense that explicitly noted Japan’s counterstrike capabilities and decided to increase defense spending by 60%.

Top 10 companies receiving defense-related procurement orders from the Japanese government from 2021 to 2023.

The upper section shows order value, and the lower section shows donations from the company to the National Political Association (a political finance organization that handles corporate and group donations to the LDP).

Note:
・Order values are compiled from Defense Agency materials, etc.
・Orders received and donations made by subsidiaries are consolidated to the current parent company.
・Former company names have been aligned with current company names.

(Originally published in Japanese on October 27, 2024. )

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