The defense authorities of Japan and Israel are making preparations toward initiating joint research on unmanned surveillance airplanes, Japanese government sources and bilateral diplomatic sources said.
The preparations are in the final phase and the two governments have already sounded out the defense industry of the two counties about the feasibility of participating in the project, the sources said.
Such an arrangement has become possible under Japan's eased arms export principles in 2014 updates. Japan's previous principles banned the country from exporting arms to a state that may potentially become a conflict country. With its Palestinian issue, Israel fell under this category.