While rarely in the limelight, the Japan Self Defence Forces are well equipped for CBRN defence. As Japanese law and convention increasingly facilitate the export of defence equipment, Japanese companies could emerge as strong players in the international CBRN market.
The Japanese military is not small but manages a very low profile. For constitutional reasons Japan’s military has been referred to as the Japan Self Defence Forces (JSDF) since the political restructuring of Japan in the aftermath of the Second World War. Approximately a quarter of a million Japanese serve on active duty with the JSDF, with perhaps another 56,000 as reservists. If one were to draw a chart with one axis denominated ‘Amount of military equipment’ and the other axis ‘Amount of attention devoted by journalists and other observers’, the JSDF will be in a far corner. Ever since the Finns joined NATO, the JSDF is the largest ignored military force in the world at present.
The Japanese defence budget is well over USD 50 billion (EUR 42.5 billion) in a normal year. A significant defence industry serves this large military force, while Japan imports billions of dollars in defence equipment every year. Some of the big names in the Japanese arms industry are also household names in the West for other products. Japan is considered a useful export market by European and North American suppliers, but it is an inconsequential defence exporter both by law and convention.
Japanese law and convention, however, are clearly changing. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced in April 2026 that Japan will start to export weapons, ammunition and defence equipment to a much greater extent than permitted in the past. The same month some Japanese defence manufacturers made an appearance at a trade show in Malaysia. Although early talk is about things like drones and ammunition, both much in demand, there is likely to be a knock-on effect regarding equipment for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defence, for which the JSDF is reasonably well equipped and trained. Will some of this equipment now spread out onto the world market, and what would it look like?
First, there’s respiratory protection. The Japanese firm Koken produces the Type 18 protective mask, which appears to be visually similar to masks in use in the United Kingdom and United States. The venerable textile and fibre firm Toyobo produces the JSDF’s CBRN protective suits. If the paper trail from patent applications is to be believed, the fabric for the suits may be made in South Korea by a Toyobo subsidiary. Both can be seen in video and still images from US-Japanese joint exercises. Teikoku Sen-I is active in protective clothing and disaster response equipment and is the Japanese distributor for several non-Japanese CBRN suppliers from the world market.
The ground element of the JSDF fields a number of CBRN reconnaissance vehicles and it appears that the JSDF may be one of the larger users of specialist CBRN recce vehicles. The well-known heavy equipment firm Komatsu built and delivered 47 6×6 Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicles from 1987 through to 2009. This is based on the Type 82 wheeled armoured personnel carrier (APC) and 30 CBRN variants were still in service in 2024. A newer 8×8 Komatsu APC, the Type 96, is the platform for a revised recce vehicle. The same source document reports 21 of those in service in 2024.
Regarding large equipment for CBRN decontamination, the vehicle firm Isuzu produces a 12-ton decontamination truck, replacing older similar systems. Many older decontamination systems were seen in the aftermath of the March 2011 Fukushima radiological incident. The current Isuzu model appears visually similar to Kärcher and OWR systems while being larger and heavier than similar Cristanini systems. If the Japanese are using specialist decontamination chemistry solutions, this is inscrutable to this correspondent at present.
Much of what we know about detection equipment in the JSDF comes either from non-Japanese equipment manufacturers or can be observed through joint exercises. Some 462 JCAD chemical detectors, made by Smiths Detection, were sold to the JSDF in 2025 and 2026 and have been seen in images from exercises. Bertin, the French CBRN manufacturer, has also sold equipment into the Japanese market.
However, what about Japanese-made goods? The heavy machinery firm IHI Group makes an ‘NBC Early Warning System’ that is stated to have chemical, biological and radiological components; information on this system or its components is scant, although JSDF documents indicate that it is in service with Japanese forces. Company documents point to a ‘CBRN Early Warning System’ for civil counterterrorism use. Fuji Electric has long manufactured radiation detection systems and several categories of its detection instruments are in use in the JSDF.
CBRN detection is an area where Japanese industry, well versed in producing sophisticated scientific instrumentation, could easily play a much bigger role in an environment less encumbered by export regulations. There are clearly a number of Japanese firms that produce hazardous materials detection instruments or radiation detection instruments for civilian use. Some are already operating on the world market, such as Rigaku, which makes instruments for chemical identification. The firm Kumahira produces liquid explosive detection scanners for civil aviation security use. Firms like these could easily find ways to adapt their products to military CBRN use for export customers.
The Japanese company to watch in this area, however, is probably Horiba, which has a variety of business elements and has acquired the British vehicle technology firm MIRA (not to be confused with MIRA Safety: a similarly named US firm active in CBRN protection). Horiba has been active in the drones and robotic space, but also active in system integration and hazardous materials sensors of many types. A press release from the UK government in 2021 speaks about a UK-Horiba project to put CBRN sensors on a small robot. Indeed, due to the use of Horiba’s UK-based subsidiary, this was a rare example of defence work outside Japan before the new policies.
Do not expect any dramatic news quickly, but Japanese defence exports will inevitably rise and some Japanese CBRN items are likely to be part of that.
