In meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Singapore on June 3, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa told him that Japan would allow the United States to export to other countries an anti-missile missile being jointly developed by Japan and the U.S. if certain conditions are met.

Japan is expected to confirm this position in a meeting of Japanese and U.S. foreign and defense ministers to be held in Washington on June 21.

The move could undermine Japan's long-standing weapons-exports ban, one of Japan's postwar diplomatic principles, first formed by the Sato Cabinet in 1967 and strengthened in 1976 by the Miki Cabinet.