ABSTRACT
It has been mentioned earlier that the increasing pressures from the West on Japan to restrict her exports and to liberalise her import policy together with the continued world recession have led to a significant contraction of capacity in various sectors of the economy and a consequent rise in unemployment, particularly of middle-aged people. As a result both industry and some trade unions are already looking to the defence industries to create a favourable climate for industrial investment and additional employment opportunities. According to Kiyoshi Tamaki, the director of the Central Procurement Office of the Japan Defense Agency (JDA), ‘more enterprises are coming to show understanding for defense production, which can secure an average profit rate of 5 to 7 per cent, and they are coming to attach expectation on it’.1
