The government will not stipulate the planned lifting of its self-imposed ban on arms exports when in the next week or so it adopts a new basic defense policy, according to politicians who attended the ruling coalition's security panel meeting Tuesday.
Instead, the new policy allowing weapons exports will probably be announced in a separate statement issued by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda when the Cabinet approves the new Defense Program Outline, they said.
The procedure to announce the lifting of the decades-old ban has turned low key because New Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party and backed by lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, takes a cautious stance on the issue.