TOKYO, March 13 (Reuters) – Japan will inform the United States next week that it intends to join the ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense initiative and hopes that Washington can seek its help with missile production due to the war in the Middle East and other conflicts, according to two sources.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will announce the latest plan when she meets US President Donald Trump in Washington DC at a leaders’ summit on March 19, the Japanese government sources said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Trump’s Golden Dome project, announced last year with an ambitious timeline for 2028, envisages expanding existing ground-based defenses, such as interceptor missiles, with more space-based experimental elements aimed at detecting, tracking and potentially countering incoming threats from orbit.
But the project has made little visible progress so far. Details of how Japan will participate are also unclear.
The Yomiuri newspaper, which first reported Japan’s plans on Friday, said Tokyo hopes the initiative can be used to defend the country against new hypersonic glide weapons being developed by China and Russia.
Tokyo anticipates that Trump may request that Japan produce or co-develop missiles that could help replace U.S. munitions stocks depleted by the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, as well as U.S. support for Ukraine, the sources said. The country is still considering how to respond to any such request, they added.
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