Japan to step up monitoring of defense firms' financial condition

It will also consider using state funds to bail out firms....in such cases as when they face the threat of acquisition by foreign rivals. 

Sounds like plain old protectionism to me.

This is too late.

Most Japanese defense contractors are going out of business as Abe san switches from domestic arms sourcing to US FMS.

To keep these firms alive, Japan needs to spend $20 billion a year on new arms acquisition, four times what it's spending now. But bankrupt Japan has no money to blow $20 billion on arms a year.

@JeffLee

Sounds like plain old protectionism to me.

It's legal under international law to prevent the foreign control of defense contractors on national security ground.

How much does anyone want to bet this is more about what's going on with SK than anything else. Japan does not want to have it's industries affected like they have affected the one's in SK by dropping their favored nation status?

@Yubaru

How much does anyone want to bet this is more about what's going on with SK than anything else.

Korea's arms industry is doing very well thanks to the government's participation in arms race, where the Korean government is spending three times the sum on weapons acquisition per year compared to Japan, and most of its weapons are domestically sourced unlike Japan which is now hooked on importing cheap(Relative speaking compared to Japan domestic sourcing) weapons from the US.

This is why Korea can afford to build own stealth fighters, own nuclear submarines, and own missile defense system while broke Japan can't.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/01/south-korea-weapons-production-united-states/

Tired of U.S. Dependence, South Korea Seeks to Build—and Sell—Its Own Weapons

The military is turning its focus to domestic research and development and seeking to become a major arms supplier, and that is scaring North Korea.

BY MORTEN SOENDERGAARD LARSEN | NOVEMBER 1, 2019, 9:51 AM