Japan and 10 other countries are set to ask the United States to improve the way it manages its military sales program to address equipment-delivery delays and the slow return of excess payments, government sources say.

Worried about its deployment plans being affected by the way the Foreign Military Sales program is being run, the Defense Ministry has raised the issue of its inability to confirm whether a delivery has been shipped, which it says is being caused by documentation issues.

It also plans to bring up the issue of pricing, which some have criticized as lacking transparency.