Japan urges India to speed up internal process on UNICORN maritime radar deal
India and Japan signed the UNICORN Naval Radar Agreement during Sanae Takaichi’s visit to India in July. | Photo credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
TOKYO
Japan on Tuesday (Sep 29, 2026) urged India to speed up internal official processing of the UNICORN (Unified Complex Radio Antenna) maritime radar system agreement signed by both sides during Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to India in July.
In an exclusive chat with The Hindu on Tuesday (September 29, 2026), a senior Japanese Defense Ministry official said that the next naval exercise by the Quad member states will be held near the Sea of Japan by the end of the year. The official went on to say that Japan will soon revise major policy documents related to defense, national security and military supply plans in light of the ongoing conflicts in West Asia and Ukraine.
The senior official called for closer military cooperation between India and Japan and highlighted the concept of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), which was prominently mentioned during Ms Takaichi’s visit to India in July.
Referring to the UNICORN project, the official said, “We have a basic technology transfer agreement and now we are waiting for the internal processing of the agreement within the Indian establishment and we hope that the internal process will speed up.” Noting that the India-Japan bilateral naval exercise ‘Veer Guardian 2026’ ended last week, the official said the Quad Navy exercise – Malabar – will be held by the end of this year.
Countermoves
A senior defense ministry official highlighted the “changing security environment” in the region and said Japan would work quickly to ensure a “round-the-clock” countermeasures capability against drones and other unmanned platforms.
“Besides drones, artificial intelligence is also being deployed in the fighting in West Asia and Ukraine, which is speeding up decision-making in the military. Fighting drones is becoming costly as military hardware will run out within a week if we start countering drones with expensive missiles,” the official said, outlining the evolving challenges facing Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF). He pointed out that Japan formulated three policy documents in 2022 on national security, national defense and military supplies (national defense construction). These documents were due to be revised in 2027, but are now being revised “in advance” due to challenges arising from the active battlefields of West Asia and Ukraine.
A policy document released in August titled “Evaluation of Japan’s Current National Defense Strategy and Defense Building Program (Challenges and Future Directions)” further states that Tokyo considers it “essential to build a large number of diverse unmanned assets, integrate them with conventional platforms, and operate them flexibly in accordance with mission requirements and battlefield conditions.”
A note of concern
A Defense Ministry official pointed to activities involving China, Russia and North Korea that appear “concerning” to Japan, saying that “Japan is monitoring the military activities” of the three countries. “China’s non-transparent and rapidly increasing military spending and its activities in areas around Japan, as well as joint Sino-Russian bomber flights in areas near Japan, are of concern to Tokyo,” said the official, who declined to describe the activities as a “threat.”
The official pointed out that North Korea is helping Russia in its campaign in Ukraine, and in return Pyongyang is “getting technology from Russia.” But he said that despite new and emerging challenges on the security front, “Japan is not going to strike first.” “We will maintain the minimum defense capacity necessary for self-defense to be used when Japan is under attack and there will be no change in this position,” a government official said. “Japan will not assert its military power, but will actively contribute to peace and stability in the region.”
Earlier this month, China’s foreign ministry cited Japan’s wartime history of aggression against China and other regions and pointed to Tokyo’s plans to revise its pacifist constitution. China said Japan’s “actions pose an obvious challenge to the post-war international order and a major factor threatening peace and stability in the region.”
However, a senior Japanese official reiterated Japan’s concerns over China’s July 6 test-fire of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in the South China Sea. “China’s military activities lack transparency and are very rapid and cover large areas,” the official said.
“Going forward, the Ministry of Defense of Japan will continue to cooperate with our allies and like-minded countries in dealing with such actions in the South China Sea,” the official added.
(The reporter is visiting Japan as a guest of the Foreign Press Center Japan (FPCN), Japan’s leading foreign policy think tank, to attend the “2026 International Press Conference” to be held on October 1, 2026 in Tokyo.)
Published – 29 Sep 2026 23:05 IST