Japan unveils new assault rifle, amid rising tensions in East China Sea

Troops of Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Force are to be equipped with a new assault rifle designed to be more resistant to corrosion as well as to operate after exposure to water and other contaminants, such as sand and dust.

After the Type 20 assault rifle was unveiled at the Defence Ministry in Tokyo, Japanese media reported that the weapon had been designed specifically to be used in amphibious operations in the southern prefecture of Okinawa, which includes the Japanese-held Senkaku archipelago, a region claimed by China and known there as the Diaoyu Islands.

Garren Mulloy, a professor of international relations at Japan’s Daito Bunka University and an authority on defence issues, said while there were suggestions the rifle had been designed solely for a single geographical location, it was likely to have been tested in multiple battlefield scenarios.

“The obvious assumption is that Japan is planning to carry out a lot more amphibious operations,” Mulloy said. “But if you talk to professional soldiers, you will see that dust or other contaminants in the mechanism of a weapon is a constant problem, and I think the Japanese have designed a weapon that will have better tolerances than its predecessor in all conditions.”

According to the Defence Ministry, the new Type 20 assault rifle, named as it will be deployed in fiscal 2020, will replace the Type 1989 weapon, introduced 31 years ago, although only in limited numbers. That has meant that many SDF troops have been relying on a rifle that was first put into service as far back as 1964.

“This weapon will have been proofed in the snow in Hokkaido, the humidity of Okinawa and they will have taken them to desert environments in the United States to make sure that they operate as they are meant to in any given situation,” Mulloy said.

Mulloy noted, however, that tensions were once more rising in the waters of the East China Sea surrounding the disputed Diaoyu Islands.

Chinese coastguard vessels caught chasing Japanese fishing boat in East China Sea

“If we look back over the last six months or so, there have been a steady number of Chinese incursions into those waters and then during the coronavirus crisis, Beijing was otherwise occupied,” he said. “But as soon as the crisis passed its peak there, it was as if Beijing wanted to reassert its claims. It’s as if they said, ‘We were away, but now we’re back’.”

The situation in the South China Sea is similar in many ways, Mulloy said, although ships operated by the China coastguard chasing a Japanese fishing boat out of Japanese territorial waters around the islands was “an unexpected escalation”.

“It is difficult to understand why they wanted to do that, to be so provocative,” he said.

The Type 20 rifle is being manufactured by Howa Machinery, which is based in Aichi Prefecture in central Japan. The firm beat competition from other manufacturers, both domestic and foreign, based on its performance and price.

The weapon fires a 5.56mm round, is 78cm long and weighs 3.5kg. Each rifle will cost 280,000 yen (US$2,600). The ministry has committed to purchasing 3,000 of the weapons this year, at a total cost of around 900 million yen.