The government will begin reviewing its arms embargo from late August, with the aim of creating new guidelines effectively abolishing the long-standing policy, an official source said.
The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believes the self-imposed arms embargo, introduced during the Cold War to block shipments of weapons to communist countries, is obsolete and out of sync with the global trend toward sharing technologies and jointly developing weapons, the source said Monday.
Officials from the Foreign, Defense, and industry ministries, as well as the Cabinet Office will start discussing the issue, according to the source.