Press–Defense Minister Gen Nakatani met his Turkish counterpart in Ankara on Tuesday, pledging to boost defense industry cooperation as Tokyo weighs the possibility of purchasing drones from the NATO member country.
Nakatani’s visit to Turkey for talks with Defense Minister Yasar Guler was the first official trip to the country — which is also a U.S. ally — by a Japanese defense chief, according to the Defense Ministry in Tokyo.
During their roughly 100-minute meeting, the two defense chiefs agreed to further expand defense cooperation between their countries and to hold consultations between senior defense officials on the potential for defense equipment and technology cooperation, the ministry said.
Drones, although not explicitly mentioned by either side in readouts of the meeting, were believed to have featured prominently in the discussions, which ran longer than the initially scheduled 60 minutes. A deal to purchase Turkish-made drones, however, was not expected to be announced.
Nakatani was scheduled to visit Istanbul on Wednesday for tours of military facilities and defense companies, including drone-maker Baykar, following a trip to major defense firm Turkish Aerospace Industries a day earlier.
The Japanese Defense Ministry is considering using up to ¥200 billion ($1.4 billion) of a record ¥8.8 trillion budget request for fiscal 2026 toward the mass deployment of defensive drones, media reports have said, as Japan pursues a policy of quantity over quality amid what it says is an increasingly harsh regional security environment.
The ministry is expected to submit its budget request for the next fiscal year, which starts in April, by the end of August.
In order to quickly introduce air, sea and underwater drones into the Self-Defense Forces by the end of fiscal 2027, Japan is looking at potentially purchasing the unmanned assets from Turkey, Australia, the United States and others.
Stockpiling drones — quickly — has been a key target for the ministry, a push that was highlighted in Japan’s 2022 Defense Buildup Program. According to the program, the SDF will “expeditiously procure various types of unmanned assets.”
As part of the program, Japan is aiming to spend some ¥1 trillion on drone procurement and research and development costs by the conclusion of its five-year, ¥43 trillion spending plan through 2027.
The drones on its wish list include long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles and shipborne unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance assets, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles for “the rapid transport of supplies to widely dispersed deployed units, remote bases and naval vessels.”
Japan has already been taking steps to fill its needs.
In the current budget for fiscal 2025, the Defense Ministry allocated ¥41.5 billion for the deployment of large, U.S.-made MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones in a bid to improve surveillance operations, as well as ¥3.2 billion to buy scores of small attack drones capable of striking enemy vehicles, ships and aircraft.
