Japan will inform U.S. officials next week that it intends to join President Donald Trump's "Golden Dome" missile defense initiative and is preparing for the possibility that Washington may ask Tokyo to assist with missile production, two Japanese government sources said. The announcement is expected when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets President Trump in Washington D.C. at a leaders' summit scheduled for March 19, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.
The Golden Dome project, unveiled last year with a target timeline through 2028, aims to augment current ground-based defensive systems - including interceptor missiles - with more experimental space-based components. Those elements are intended to detect, track and potentially counter incoming threats from orbit. Despite the project's ambitious scope, it has shown little in the way of visible progress so far, and concrete participation plans from allies remain unsettled.
How Japan will take part in the program has not been finalized. The Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday that Tokyo hopes the initiative might be useful in defending against new hypersonic glide weapons being developed by China and Russia. The Japanese government sources also said Tokyo expects that the United States may request Japan to produce or co-develop missiles to help replenish U.S. munitions stocks depleted by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and by U.S. support for Ukraine. Japan is still weighing how it would respond to any such request, the sources added.
Late last year Japan exported a batch of surface-to-air Patriot missiles to the United States that were produced under license - a move described as a historic break with its long-standing ban on lethal weapons exports. The Trump administration is meanwhile pressing defense contractors to increase output of missiles and other munitions that have been drawn down in recent years.
Tokyo has signaled that it wants to strengthen its own munitions stockpiles to deter what it calls an increasingly assertive China and nuclear-armed North Korea. Patriot interceptors have been credited with intercepting hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones fired at Gulf countries since the U.S. and Israel launched their air war against Iran earlier this month. Ukraine has also relied on Patriot systems to protect its energy and military infrastructure since Russia invaded it in 2022.
While Japan moves toward a formal declaration of participation, several substantive questions remain unanswered - notably the scope of Tokyo's technical or production role, and how rapidly any co-development or manufacturing requests could be met. Officials say those details are under consideration but have not been resolved.