The 2025 Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) Japan exhibition, held from May 21 to 23 at the Makuhari Messe near Tokyo, marked a historic milestone for Japan’s defense industry. This year’s event was the largest to date, welcoming 471 companies, including 169 from Japan and 302 from the United States, the United Kingdom, and 30 other countries. The scale, energy, and strategic messaging underscored Japan’s fast-growing role in global security networks and the accelerating modernization of its arms industry.
The exhibition was 60% larger than the previous year and nearly double the size of DSEI Japan 2023. Far from a routine trade show, it reflected tectonic shifts in Japan’s defense policy, strategic outlook, and industrial ambition. A year earlier, US Forces Japan Strategic Relations Officer Tim Haffner described the event as a pivotal moment for Japan, and the 2025 turnout confirmed that assessment.
Billed as Japan’s only fully integrated defense event, DSEI featured a comprehensive range of equipment and technology. On display were armored vehicles, communications systems, medical supplies, drones, and precision weaponry. Japan’s own contributions stood out: models of the Mogami-class frigate, underwater drones, railgun prototypes, and the upgraded Type-12 surface-to-ship missile drew considerable attention. But the centerpiece was the GCAP (Global Combat Air Program) sixth-generation fighter jet, a joint project with the UK and Italy.
For Japan’s Ministry of Defense and domestic industry, the event was an unprecedented marketing platform. Executives from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), BAE Systems, and Leonardo shared center stage, showcasing their collaborative progress on GCAP and positioning the venture as a cornerstone of next-generation air power. MHI, Japan’s GCAP leader and the prime contractor for the Mogami-class frigates, emphasized its growing international outlook.
“With today’s increasingly uncertain security environment, I believe we must respond not just domestically, but with a broader international perspective,” said Katsuyuki Nabeta, a senior MHI executive.
Adding weight to the occasion, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba became the first Japanese leader to attend and address DSEI. In a stark warning, he linked Japan’s security to global flashpoints: “We are currently facing the most severe and complex security environment since the end of the Second World War. Today’s Ukraine could be East Asia tomorrow.”
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani echoed this urgency in his keynote, expressing hopes that DSEI would foster international cooperation and help sustain innovation and defense industry growth. His message: Japan is open for defense collaboration, and its industrial doors are swinging wider.
Beyond the exhibit halls, the three-day conference hosted defense officials, diplomats, and industry leaders from across the Indo-Pacific and Europe. Panels addressed pressing topics: evolving threats in the Indo-Pacific, integrating AI into battlefield decision-making, cross-domain warfare, cybersecurity, and the militarization of space.
A session dedicated to GCAP and supply chain opportunities reinforced the program’s significance. Leaders from Japan’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA), the International Government Organization for GCAP, and private sector representatives outlined timelines, technology sharing frameworks, and the long-term vision.
International interest in Japanese defense innovation was palpable. Germany’s ambassador to Japan, Petra Sigmund, stated plainly: “Germany is increasingly looking to Japan as an arms provider, whom we can trust as a co-developer with similar strengths and similar needs.”
She emphasized Germany’s interest in partnering with Japan on drones, missiles, air defense systems, and maritime intelligence. Sigmund also highlighted Berlin’s growing military engagement in the Indo-Pacific, including naval deployments and multinational exercises with Japan and others.
However, concerns lingered in the background. Asahi Shimbun reported that Trump-era unpredictability had shaken confidence in US defense commitments. An unnamed Japanese defense source told the outlet that “European countries in particular are beginning to seek security that does not depend on the United States.”
Not all voices at the conference struck an optimistic tone. Professor Mohd Faiz Abdullah of Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic and International Studies warned of an emerging “minilateral” order dominated by power blocs. He argued this trend reflects not governance, but containment: “We are entering a period of unfettered competition… where a lot of parties are going for the killing zone.”
By contrast, UK Lt. Gen. Sir Tom Copinger-Symes offered a sober but strategic vision. “We must innovate together, or we will lose together,” he said. His call was for more than shared interests: it was for shared systems, synchronized technologies, and redefined security boundaries.
In parallel with DSEI, Meiji University in Tokyo hosted a symposium on Japan’s defense industrial policy. Professor Christopher Hughes from the University of Warwick delivered a lecture entitled “Japan’s Defence Industrial Strategy and Fighter Aircraft Production: Striving for Tier-One Status.”
Hughes laid out how Japan, constrained by Article 9 of its pacifist Constitution, has long walked a tightrope between economic and strategic goals. Despite these limits, Japan has maintained a coherent rationale for defense industrial development:
Deterrence against regional threats
Strategic leverage in the US-Japan alliance
Emergency preparedness and self-sufficiency
Economic dual-use industrial policy
The country’s approach, Hughes argued, reflects “techno-nationalism” – the belief that technological self-reliance is essential to sovereignty. But this strategy also had costs: inefficiencies, low profitability, and a fragmented industrial base.
The turning point came with the 2014 revision under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who introduced the Three Principles on Defense Equipment Transfers. These allowed arms exports under strict conditions, laying the groundwork for broader international collaboration.
Japan’s strategic reorientation accelerated dramatically in 2022 when the cabinet approved a revised National Security Strategy, backed by the National Defense Strategy and Defense Buildup Program. The documents redefined Japan’s defense priorities and committed to doubling its defense budget to 2% of GDP by 2027.
These changes aimed to build “stand-off” capabilities, boost missile defense, integrate cyber and space operations, and reverse private sector retreat from defense manufacturing. They also signaled a move away from a strictly defensive posture toward a broader international security role.
Already, Japanese firms are actively pursuing export deals, from patrol boats for Southeast Asia to efforts to market the Mogami frigate abroad. Though a proposed Soryu-class submarine sale to Australia fell through, momentum is growing.
Hughes sees GCAP as a true partnership, not just a subcontracting deal. It includes full technology sharing and modification rights – a level of trust and integration rarely extended in such programs. “Japan is striving for Tier-One status,” he concluded, and DSEI 2025 proved that it’s no longer striving alone.
DSEI Japan 2025 signaled a profound shift in Japan’s global role. No longer just a regional ally of the United States, Japan is positioning itself as a capable, connected, and collaborative defense partner on the world stage. The event showcased a maturing defense industry, robust international interest, and a new doctrine rooted in realism and resilience.
