Japan has decided to develop the components for interception missiles with the United States, moving forward the ongoing joint technological research on a missile defense system to a development stage amid U.S. pressure to advance the project, government sources said Sunday.

Given that it requires exports of parts to the United States, the government will also have to pursue a politically sensitive review of the three-principle ban on exports of weapons, the sources said.

The government will make its final decision at Cabinet and Security Council meetings within the current fiscal year after making final internal arrangements.

Attention will shift to how the administration of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will justify the need to jointly develop the missile shield at the cost of watering down the export ban after wasting a huge budget on the prolonged research, including some failures, and deciding recently to spend an estimated 1 trillion yen to purchase a U.S.-made defense system.

The sources said the decision chiefly stems from strong pressure from the United States and a report submitted earlier this month by Koizumi's key advisory Council on Security and Defense Capabilities proposing to review the export ban with an eye on the joint parts development.

The three principles were initially set in 1967 to ban exports of weapons to the communist bloc, those nations under U.N. embargo, and countries involved in, or on the verge of being involved in, conflicts.

The government banned exports effectively to all countries in 1976 by saying Japan will also refrain from exports to countries not subject to the three principles. But it decided in 1983 to allow technological transfer to the United States.

Japan and the United States agreed in a so-called "two-plus-two'' meeting of defense and foreign ministers in September 1998 to begin joint technological research of a missile defense system.

The two nations began the research program in 1999 for a system to launch interceptors from Aegis destroyers. Japan has spent 15.6 billion yen up to fiscal 2003.

Meanwhile, the government decided last December to purchase from the United States and deploy a missile defense system due mainly to threats from North Korea.

The joint research covers four areas -- infrared ray sensors for identifying and tracking missiles, high-performance shields to protect interceptor warheads from air-attrition heat, second-rocket propulsion units, and kinetic warheads for destroying warheads of incoming ballistic missiles.

The government has not yet sufficiently explained what has been successful and how much of the budget has been wasted in the prolonged joint research activities.

Together with such explanations, the government will have to specify which of the four areas will be advanced to the development stage.

Source: Kyodo News