Japan signs arms deal with France to broaden military role

"Specific projects", "Trading weapons and military technology"... Sounds like the government is rewinding the time. I think it's too provocative an action.

Harbingers of death and destruction.

Drones are hardly defensive these days.

One of the true reasons why Abe wants 'Beautiful Japan' to be able to roll back the times in terms of being a modern, peaceful nation, to one that can engage in war -- to make and sell weapons. How is this peaceful?

Awesome photo of a couple of merchants of death more than happy to reap the rewards while others die in another pointless war.

Becoming strong and powerful is essential for Japan for maintaining its peace , freedom and sovereignty in the region.

war is peace freedom is slavery ignorance is strength george orwell 1984

The French are notorious for being the most cynical, venal purveyors of arms in the world.

Are they a good choice of partners for Abe Shinzo and his minions?

Ozzy said it -

"Generals gathered in their Masses, Just like witches at Black Masses"

Business as usual.

Don't know if this is a good idea. One is a sweettalker and the other doesn't know what he's doing........

This is unconstitutional.

Another step closer to war...

Wait........I thought Japan wasn't supposed to "have a military"

Why does everyone want to see Japan weak? I say they should turn their defense force into a real military. 70 years of reflection is good enough.

The French are notorious for being the most cynical, venal purveyors of arms in the world.

Why only the French? What about the US, Russia or Germany? And what about China...

China has overtaken Germany to become the world's third-biggest arms exporter, although its 5 percent of the market remains small compared to the combined 58 percent of exports from the U.S. and Russia, a new study says.

http://www.macon.com/2015/03/15/3641165_institute-china-now-worlds-third.html?rh=1

I don't know why the French are the most cynical, when we are speaking about a cynical market per se, where more than the half is made by the Americans and the Russians. Seriously.

Alex80: I don't know why the French are the most cynical, when we are speaking about a cynical market per se, where more than the half is made by the Americans and the Russians. Seriously.

I don't know about "cynical", but France at population 66M is ahead of USA and China in rough arms export figures per capita, but still behind Israel, Russia, and Sweden, and tied with UK.

Rank per capita is 1st - Israel, 2nd - Russia, 3rd - Sweden, 4th - France and UK tied, 6th - USA, 7th - Italy and Ukraine tied, 9th - Germany, 10th - China.

2013 Rank by AE TIV, Country, 2013 arms export "trend indicator values", recent population, AE TIV per capita, rank by AE TIV per capita in top 10 exporters by AE TIV

1, Russia, $8283M, 144M, $57, 2nd 2, USA, $6153M, 320M, $19, 6th 3, China, $1837M, 1357M, $1.35, 10th 4, France, $1489M, 66.6M, $22, tied for 4th 5, UK, $1394M, 64M, $22, tied for 4th 6, Germany, $972M, 80.7M, $12, 9th 7, Italy, $807M, 61M, $13, tied for 7th 8, Israel, $773M, 8.2M, $94, 1st 9, Ukraine, $589M, 44M, $13, tied for 7th 10, Sweden, $505M, 9.7M, $52, 3rd

Based on wikipedia's population figures and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_largest_arms_exporters:

The units in this table are so-called trend indicator values expressed in millions of U.S. dollars at 1990s prices. These values do not represent real financial flows but are a crude instrument to estimate volumes of arms transfers, regardless of the contracted prices, which can be as low as zero in the case of military aid. Ordered by descending 2013 values.

Best peace keeping weapons are the nuclear type and 6 subs with 40 nukes would ensure peace and safety.