Japan held a ceremony on Wednesday to mark its planned donation of about 100 military vehicles to Ukraine as Tokyo seeks to supply equipment that can be of wider military use than its previous shipments of helmets and hazmat suits.
In a ceremony at the defense ministry where two half-ton trucks were displayed, Japanese Deputy Defense Minister Toshiro Ino handed Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Korsunsky a document listing the three types of vehicles included in the donation.
“We hope the invasion will end as soon as possible and peaceful daily life will return,” Ino said. “We will provide all the support we can.”
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The donation, which also includes 30,000 food rations, comes as the Japanese government is seeking to ease its policy of transferring military equipment as part of a new national security policy that allows its military a greater offensive role, in a major break from his post-WWII self-defense-only principle.
While other countries have supplied Ukraine with tanks, missiles and fighter planes, Japan has limited its donations to non-lethal equipment because the transfer policy prohibits the supply of lethal weapons to warring countries.
Sergiy Korsunsky, left, Ukraine’s ambassador to Japan, talks with Toshiro Ino, right, Japan’s defense minister, during the handover ceremony of defense equipment for Ukraine at the Ministry of Defense May 24, 2023, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
Japan has supplied Ukraine with bulletproof vests, helmets, gas masks, hazmat suits, small drones and food rations since the start of the Russian invasion last year.
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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised the trucks to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when they met in Hiroshima on the sidelines of the G7 summit on Sunday. Japan has also offered to treat wounded Ukrainian soldiers at a Japanese military hospital.
The vehicles consist of half-tonne trucks, high mobility vehicles and material handling vehicles, the government said. The Procurement, Technology and Logistics Agency said details, including the exact number of vehicles and the timing of their shipment, were being finalised.
Tokyo has joined the United States and European nations in sanctioning Russia for its invasion and providing humanitarian and economic support to Ukraine.
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Japan has reacted quickly due to fears of a possible impact of the war in East Asia, where the Chinese military has become increasingly assertive and heightened tensions around self-governing Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory.
Japan has contributed more than $7 billion to Ukraine. It has also taken in more than 2,000 displaced Ukrainians and helped them with housing and job and education support, a rare move in a country known for its strict immigration policy.
