日本軍工企業謹慎擴張市場 首選東南亞及印度

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Some of Japan’s biggest companies, best known for motorcycles, washing machines and laptop computers, are pitching a new line of global products: military hardware.

日本橫濱——一些以生產摩托車、洗衣機和筆記本電腦聞名的日本大公司，正在向全球推銷另一種產品：重型軍事裝備。

Quiet-running attack submarines. Amphibious search-and-rescue planes. Ship-mounted radar systems that use lasers to help pinpoint approaching enemies.

悄無聲息的攻擊型潛艇。兩棲搜救飛機。用激光精確定位正在靠近的敵人的船載雷達系統。

After a ban on weapons exports that the Japanese government had maintained for nearly 50 years, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Hitachi, Toshiba and other military contractors in this semipacifist country are cautiously but unmistakably telling the world they are open for business.

在日本政府堅守武器出口禁令近50年之後，這個半和平主義國家的三菱(Mitsubishi)、川崎(Kawasaki)、日立(Hitachi)、東芝(Toshiba)及其他軍事承包商，正在小心翼翼卻明白無誤地告訴世界，它們在做這門生意。

A maritime security exposition here in May was the first military industry trade show in Japan, organizers and participants said. And it was the first anywhere to feature the Japanese manufacturers.

橫濱今年5月舉行了一個海上安全博覽會，其組織者和參與者說，這是日本舉辦的第一個軍工行業貿易展。實際上這也是日本製造商第一次出現在這類展覽中。

“I’ve never seen them,” said Maj. Gen. Mick Fairweather, a procurement specialist with the Australian armed forces, who regularly attends such expos around the world. “It’s going to be a growing thing.”

“我從來沒有見過它們，”澳大利亞軍方的採購專家、經常參加世界各地博覽會的米克·費爾韋瑟少將(Mick Fairweather)表示。“以後這種情況會越來越多。”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lifted the prohibition on military exports last year, part of a loosening of restrictions on Japan’s military power that were put in place after its defeat in World War II.

在二戰中戰敗後。日本的軍事實力受到限制。去年，首相安倍晉三(Shinzo Abe)解除了軍事出口禁令，並採取了其他一些解除限制的措施。

While much of the Japanese public opposes the changes, Mr. Abe says they are long overdue. The growing might of China, Japan’s close but not always friendly neighbor, has added force to his argument.

雖然很多日本民衆反對這種變化，但安倍晉三說早就應該這麼做了。日本與近鄰中國之間的關係時好時壞，中國日益增長的實力爲安倍晉三的主張增加了說服力。

Mr. Abe is counting on increased military-related trade to help cement ties with other countries in the region that share Japan’s wariness of China. Southeast Asian nations and India are high on the list of potential customers.

安倍晉三正在依靠軍事相關貿易的增長來鞏固與其他一些國家的聯繫。這些國家同在亞太地區，同樣對中國懷有戒心。在日本的潛在客戶名單上，東南亞國家和印度排名很高。

Japan hopes Australia, a fellow Pacific democracy, will be a receptive market for Soryu-class submarines, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Shipbuilding. The subs, which cost about 50 billion yen, or $410 million, use ultraquiet diesel-electric drives that make them hard for adversaries to detect.

日本希望同在太平洋地區的民主國家澳大利亞成爲蒼龍級潛艇的買家。三菱重工和川崎造船公司研發的這種潛艇造價約500億日元，約合25億人民幣，使用超靜音的柴油和電力驅動，敵人很難發現它們。

Mitsubishi Heavy is also working on a prototype amphibious assault vehicle, used for landing troops on hostile seashores, that could eventually compete with American-designed vehicles used by the United States Marine Corps.

三菱重工還在研發一種兩棲突擊車，用於在環境惡劣的海岸進行登陸作戰。它可能最終會與美國海軍陸戰隊使用的一些由美國設計的載具開展競爭。

Many people outside the country would struggle to name a Japanese arms manufacturer. Even in Japan, the business is little publicized.

在國外，很多人都說不出日本有哪些軍工製造商。即使在日本，該行業也很少做宣傳。

But some of the country’s large industrial conglomerates have long had sidelines in military production, supplying a variety of equipment, including tanks and planes, to the Japanese military, the Self-Defense Forces. With rare exceptions, the Japanese government has been their only customer.

但是，該國一些大型工業集團早已在生產軍工產品，爲日本軍隊自衛隊提供包括坦克和飛機在內的各種設備。除了極少數例外情況，日本政府一直是這些公司唯一的客戶。

“When you don’t fight wars, it doesn’t exactly help the arms industry,” said Masahiro Matsumura, a professor at Momoyama Gakuin University who specializes in politics and national security.

“你不打仗，對軍事工業發展就沒有多大幫助，”桃山學院大學(Momoyama Gakuin University)政治和國家安全教授鬆村昌廣(Masahiro Matsumura)說。

Less than 1 percent of Japan’s industrial output is military-related, and only four Japanese companies are among the top 100 arms producers ranked by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a watchdog group. The biggest, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, earns less than a tenth the revenue from military sales as the top American military contractor, Lockheed Martin.

日本的工業產值中，只有不到1%與軍事相關。在觀察組織斯德哥爾摩國際和平研究所(Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)的名單中，只有四家日本公司名列全球百強武器生產商榜單。其中最大的三菱重工，其軍事銷售收入不到美國頭號軍事承包商洛克希德·馬丁公司(Lockheed Martin)的十分之一。

Small production runs make Japanese hardware relatively expensive, Professor Matsumura said. And a lack of real-world experience presents an additional hurdle.

鬆村說，由於生產批量小，日本的重型裝備比較昂貴。另一個障礙則是缺乏實戰經驗。

“The U.S. fights a lot of wars, so they get feedback on the performance of their weapons,” he said. “Japan doesn’t fight, so there’s no feedback.”

“美國打了很多仗，所以獲得了武器性能的反饋，”他說。“日本沒有打仗，所以也沒有反饋。”

Japan has not sent troops into combat since World War II, and its postwar constitution renounces the use of force “as a means of settling international disputes.” Among the changes Mr. Abe’s government is enacting are new laws that will allow the Self-Defense Forces to operate abroad in a wider array of circumstances, including to defend allies like the United States.

日本自第二次世界大戰以來沒有出兵作戰過，其戰後憲法放棄用武力“作爲解決國際爭端的手段”。安倍政府正在進行的改革包括制定新法律，讓自衛隊可以在更廣泛的環境下前赴國外開展行動，其中包括爲美國等盟友承擔防務。

To seed the market for military exports, Japan is offering financial aid to buyers. Credit guarantees, for example, would make buying weapons from Japan more affordable for developing countries, by lowering interest rates on the loans used to finance deals. In the last month, Japan has begun negotiating military-related trade agreements with Malaysia and the Philippines.

爲了啓動軍事出口市場，日本將爲買家提供財政援助。例如信用擔保可以降低用於貿易的貸款利息，讓發展中國家能買得起日本的武器。在過去一個月裏，日本已經開始與馬來西亞和菲律賓談判涉及軍火的貿易協定。

India has already expressed interest in a large-capacity seaplane, the US-2, built for the Japanese navy by ShinMaywa Industries, a manufacturer better known for dump trucks and the passenger boarding bridges used at airports. The US-2 could help the Indian military patrol distant island chains like the Andaman and Nicobar, hundreds of miles from the mainland across the Indian Ocean.

印度已經表示了對大載重量水上飛機US-2的興趣，這是新明和工業(ShinMaywa Industries)爲日本海軍研製的產品。該公司更有名的產品是自卸卡車，以及機場使用的乘客登機橋。US-2可以幫助印度軍方巡邏隊前往與印度洋大陸相距數百英里的遙遠羣島，比如安達曼和尼科巴羣島。

Breaking into a market dominated by established giants, often with close ties to governments, will not be easy. In many areas, specialists say, Japan’s best bet is probably to cooperate rather than compete head-to-head.

往往與政府之間存在密切聯繫的巨頭公司，在軍工市場上佔據着支配地位，要進入這個市場並不容易。專家說，在很多領域，日本最好的選擇可能是合作而不是開展直接競爭。

Japan’s most marketable products, they say, are relatively inconspicuous components, like image sensors and carbon-fiber aircraft parts, many originally developed with civilian applications in mind.

他們說，日本最有市場的產品是相對不起眼的組件，比如圖像傳感器和碳纖維飛機零件。很多這種組件在最初研發時，考慮的都是民用領域。

“We make some excellent parts and subsystems, but if we intend to produce whole systems, like next-generation fighters, it’s impossible to develop these things on our own,” said Satoshi Morimoto, a former defense minister.

“我們出產了一些優秀的零部件和子系統，但是如果我們打算生產整個系統，比如下一代戰機，全靠自己研發是不可能的，”前防衛大臣的森本敏(Satoshi Morimoto)說。

Despite their new freedom to export, Japanese companies remain wary of being associated with a controversial industry.

儘管新近獲得了出口軍事產品的自由，和一個有爭議的產業牽扯在一起，還是讓日本企業感到擔心。

“Most of the things here aren’t very weaponlike,” said Yoshibumi Kusaka, a helicopter sales representative on duty at Kawasaki’s booth at the expo, noting the absence of guns, missiles and other blatantly threatening gear from the Japanese companies’ displays.

“這裏的大多數東西都不是很像武器，”博覽會上川崎展臺的直升機銷售代表良文草香（音）說。他還表示，日本公司沒有展示槍炮、導彈和其他明顯具有威脅性的裝備。