Japan plans to create an arms procurement agency to streamline Tokyo's spending on defense-related hardware that will also promote military exports and take charge of advanced weapons research, two people with knowledge of the developing plan said.
One immediate aim of the new agency, to be set up as early as next year, would be to lower the outsized costs of buying equipment for Japan's military at a time when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is looking to counter China's military buildup and bolster Japan's claims to the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
"The goal is to cut costs. It (the agency) is being created to improve how we buy things," said Akira Sato, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker involved in formulating defense policy as the parliamentary vice defense minister.