초록 열기/닫기 버튼

The purpose of this study is to explain what constitutes sources of competitiveness of Japan's defense industry. This study adopts Porter's Diamond Model as a theoretical framework to evaluate competitiveness of the defense industry in a more comprehensive and strategic way. Japan’s defense industry has operated in a noncompetitive market environment, with a few companies dealing with the Japanese government as the sole buyer. Coupled with this distinctive defense acquisition process, Japan’s arms export ban policy has brought the industry to a standstill. Those companies in the market, blessed with the small but stable demand at home, continue to receive defense contract awards from the Ministry of Defense. In such an environment, Japanese defense companies with vested rights do not have to compete with one another or with foreign suppliers in the overseas market. In addition, the Japanese defense market does not attract newcomers because of the country’s static defense industrial structure and the legal restraints on arms exports. Japanese defense industry has the technological edge on sea-based subsystems, albeit more for defensive and searching systems than offensive systems. This analysis suggests that the revise of three principles of arms exports is likely to change the characteristics of Japanese defense industry significantly but not sufficiently to constitute a fundamental transformation of that industry.