The plan could also encompass shipbuilding industries in the Philippines, South Korea, and Singapore. If realized, it could mark a new phase of defense industrial collaboration with its allies and resultant economic effects.
The development comes amid rising military and political tensions with China and a burgeoning People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) fleet in the western Pacific.
A report in Nikkei Asia said the new plan envisages repairing even frontline forward-deployed warships like destroyers, frigates, and amphibious vessels in Japan. India and the Philippines already repair logistics and auxiliary vessels like fleet replenishment tankers.
“Nuclear-powered ships, such as aircraft carriers and submarines, are not part of the consideration,” the report said.
The proposal was tabled by US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel at a March seminar hosted by the Milken Institute. Emanuel had noted how Japan’s “tremendous” industrial and shipyard capacity “could be a big part of the solution.” Japan once upon a time was the world’s largest shipbuilder, holding 50 percent of the global market share in the 1970s, until losing out to South Korea and China.
More Japanese Shipyards, Undertaking Bigger Repairs Of Bigger Warships
US ships based in Japan are currently serviced on-site at two US naval bases: Yokosuka in Kanagawa prefecture and Sasebo in Nagasaki prefecture. In the case of big repairs and overhauls, the Japan-based ships travel back to a homeport in the US and are replaced by a replacement vessel that sails to Japan.
Servicing warships at off-base Japanese private shipyards would help spread the workload. Japanese shipyards that handle Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) vessels are located at Yokohama, Kanagawa prefecture; Maizuru, Kyoto prefecture; and Kure, Hiroshima prefecture.
