Policy

Japan signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 30 September 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Legislation to enforce the treaty domestically entered into force on 1 March 1999.

Japan regularly attends meetings of the convention, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. It attended the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it provided statements on cooperation and assistance and the financial status of the convention.[1] Japan also attended the intersessional meetings in Geneva in May 2019, but did not provide a statement. Japan previously served on the Standing Committees on Victim Assistance (1999–2001), Mine Clearance (2002–2004, 2014), Stockpile Destruction (2004–2006), and the General Status and Operation of the Convention (2007–2009).

Japan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines but not Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Japan is party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, use, transfer, and stockpiling

Japan is a former antipersonnel mine producer and importer. The Defense Agency continued to purchase antipersonnel landmines until FY1996 (procurement budget: 600 million yen). The Agency had also sought 680 million yen for purchasing antipersonnel mines for FY1997 but it was canceled once Japan signed the Mine Ban Treaty. A single private company, Ishikawa Seisakusho, assembled all antipersonnel mines. Several other companies are also known to have produced landmine components. All production facilities were decommissioned by 31 March 1999.

Japan imported M3 mines from the US.[2] Japan has never exported antipersonnel mines.

Japan completed destruction of its stockpile of 985,089 antipersonnel mines on 8 February 2003. It initially retained 15,000 antipersonnel mines for training and development purposes; by the end of 2018 this number had been reduced to 898.[3]