Japan's cabinet today approved new defence guidelines that ease a ban on arms exports and identifies North Korea and China as security threats.
The plan also authorises the joint development of a missile defence system with the United States.
The five-year defence outline notes North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles and points out that China has expanded the range of its military activities at sea and has been modernising its naval and air force.
The new defence outline, which covers a period from April 1st, 2005, through March 31st, 2009, wears away at Japan's post-war policy to maintain a self defence-only military.
The government wants to relax the arms export ban to enable Tokyo to jointly develop and produce a missile defence system with the United States. Japan had maintained an arms export ban since 1976.
Critics, including the opposition Social Democratic Party, have raised concerns about the slow erosion to the pacifist society Japan has built in the aftermath of the Second World War.
PA