James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why Japan and Britain are teaming up to build a fighter jet

An artist's impression of what the sixth-generation fighter aircraft by Italy, Japan and the UK might look like (Credit: Japanese Ministry of Defense)

The UK will partner with Italy and Japan to develop a new generation of fighter aircraft with the aim of having them flying by 2035. Britain and Italy were already working together through the future combat air system, but the announcement of Japan joining them is striking. 

For decades, Japan has had an informal cap on defence spending of one per cent of GDP. But attitudes are changing and the Japanese PM has announced plans to increase defence spending to two per cent of GDP by 2027.

If Japan, which is still the world’s third largest economy, substantially increases its defence budget it will be a more effective counter-balance to China in the Indo-Pacific. Japan’s new national security strategy is expected to move away from the doctrine of only using force in self-defence, which the country adopted after the second world war. Japan’s government is aware of how vulnerable swathes of its own territory would be if China ever took Taiwan. Japan is a natural partner for the UK; in the years to come, we will see more and more Anglo-Japanese co-operation.

Japanese and Australian ministers are meeting today: both countries are members of the Quad, along with India and the US which seeks to counter Beijing’s regional ambitions. The cooperation between Japan, the UK and Australia along with its long standing security relationship with the US has led to much speculation that Aukus – the Australia, UK, US security and technology alliance – could add Japan to it. Australia’s defence minister endorsed Japan joining today. But there would be challenges in fully integrating Tokyo into the alliance given how Aukus builds on decades of Five Eyes cooperation.  

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