TOKYO, June 2 (Reuters) – The United States seeks to secure TNT supplies in Japan for 155mm artillery shells as Washington scrambles weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for a counter-offensive against Russian forces, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
For Japan, which renounces the war, any acquisition would test its willingness to court controversy to help Kiev because export rules prohibit Japanese companies from selling lethal items abroad, such as the howitzer shells Ukraine fires daily. against the Russian units occupying its southeastern regions.
However, the allies seem to have found a solution to allow the sale of TNT in the midst of shortage of ammunition
“There is a way for the United States to buy explosives from Japan,” one of the people with knowledge of the discussions in Japan told Reuters on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the issue.
Export restrictions on dual-use items or equipment that are sold commercially are less stringent than those on items for a purely military purpose, which is why the US can purchase Panasonic Toughbook laptops for its military.
Tokyo, which hosted US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin this week, has told the US government it will allow the sale of industrial TNT because the explosive is not a product for military use only, the agency said. another source.
The US wants to connect a Japanese company to a TNT supply chain to deliver explosives to US military-owned munitions plants that would package them in 155mm casings, the person added.
Japan’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Economy declined to say whether it had been approached by any Japanese companies about exporting TNT. He added in an email that items not subject to military restrictions will be assessed under regular export rules that consider the buyer’s intent, even if their use would impede international security.
The Japanese Defense Ministry’s Agency for Procurement, Technology and Logistics declined to comment.
The US State Department did not directly respond to Reuters questions about whether the US planned to buy TNT from Japan, but said Washington was working with allies and partners “to provide Ukraine with the support it needs” to fend. Japan, he added, “has shown leadership in supporting the defense of Ukraine.”
WANTING TO HELP
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wants to help Ukraine because his administration fears that a Russian victory would encourage China to attack Taiwan and embroil his country in a regional war. Last year, he warned that Ukraine could be “East Asia tomorrow,” and his administration announced Japan’s largest military buildup since World War II.
That retreat from state pacifism that has dominated Japan’s foreign policy for decades has so far not extended to lethal military aid, limiting Tokyo’s offers to Kiev to equipment such as bulletproof vests, helmets and food rations.
Following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit to Japan during the G7 leaders’ summit in Hiroshima last month, Kishida agreed to donate jeeps and trucks.
There appears to be a growing acceptance in Japan of providing military aid to Ukraine, but the degree of lethality is controversial, said Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
“The fact that Japan has decided to give trucks to Ukraine shows that things are changing. However, there still does not seem to be any political consensus on the issue of sending lethal aid,” he said.
Japan is one of dozens of friends and allies Washington is asking to help arm Ukraine as it struggles with stretched military supply chains.
South Korea, which also uses 155mm shells, is among the US. approached. A South Korean defense official told Reuters that Seoul’s stance against delivering lethal aid to kyiv had not changed.
Asked in Tokyo this week about the possibility of a change in Japan’s lethal aid policy, Austin told a news conference that any change would be Japan’s business, but “any support” for Ukraine was “always welcome.” “.
Sources speaking to Reuters declined to name the Japanese company that would supply the US government with explosives and did not say how much TNT Washington wanted to buy.
Reuters contacted 22 explosives manufacturers listed on the website of the Japan Explosives Industry Association. The only one who said it made industrial TNT was Chugoku Kayaku, a Hiroshima-based company that supplies Japan’s military.
“We have not received any direct inquiries from the US government or military,” the company said in an email.
Asked if it was discussing any sales of TNT through a middleman, the firm, which lists a TNT industrial product on its website, said it did not disclose the identities of potential customers or buyers.
JAPAN’S NEXT MOVE
The commercial supply of TNT to the US may only be a stopgap measure because many lawmakers from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) want to ease or remove export restrictions.
In December, when Kishida announced Japan’s five-year military buildup, he vowed to review export rules, opening the possibility that Japan could supply lethal weapons not just to Ukraine, but to other nations that Tokyo and Washington see as allies. potentials. against Russia and China.
Akihisa Nagashima, a former deputy defense minister and a senior LDP member of the parliamentary national security committee, said the military buildup would take Japan four-fifths of the way to becoming a “normal country” free of its world’s legacy. Defeat of the Second War.
“Addressing export restrictions is the remaining 20%,” he said.
Reporting by Tim Kelly, Nobuhiro Kubo, Yukiko Toyoda and Kaori Kaneko in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Idrees Ali in Washington and Ju-min Park in Seoul; Edited by David Crawshaw
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