Japan Just Ended 80 Years of Pacifism and Entered the Arms Business

Japan Just Ended 50 Years of Weapons Export Restrictions

Japan's postwar pacifist identity just shifted. For 50 years, Japan maintained a ban on exporting lethal weapons. This week, Japan's Cabinet and National Security Council approved scrapping it.

The new rules allow Japan to export lethal arms to foreign nations — but with conditions. Recipients must not be involved in active conflicts, must have agreements with Japan to keep defense technologies classified, and must commit to using arms in line with the U.N. Charter. Japan plans to monitor compliance. Exceptions exist for national security reasons or joint weapons development — Japan recently signed a deal with Australia to jointly produce new frigates.

The driving force is threat perception. Japan's government says it faces the toughest security environment since World War II, citing nuclear-armed neighbors China, Russia, and North Korea. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi wants higher defense spending, constitutional changes to relax military restraints, and a stronger defense industrial base. Right now, Japanese defense contractors have only one customer: the government — making profitability nearly impossible. The move isn't without opposition. Polls show roughly half or more of Japanese citizens oppose scrapping the restrictions, citing concerns about parliamentary oversight, regional stability, and Japan's pacifist constitutional identity. From Washington's angle, the Trump administration wants allies spending more on defense — but Japan's move is also explicitly designed to reduce reliance on the U.S., which comes with its own strategic complications.

Gobble's Take: When half your own citizens oppose a policy shift and you push it through anyway, the security calculus better be airtight.

Source: NPR World

Rival Blockades Are Strangling Aluminum. Your Wallet Will Feel It.

Both Iran and the U.S. have blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, and the damage is already showing up in global aluminum prices. The price of aluminum hit a four-year high last week. Gulf states produce roughly 10% of the world's aluminum and rely almost entirely on the strait to move it. Since the war began in late February, that flow has ground to a halt.

The squeeze is hitting the U.S. particularly hard — and not just because of the blockades. Trump placed 50% tariffs on all aluminum imports, including from Canada, by far the largest U.S. supplier. Canadian producers responded by shipping more to Europe instead. American manufacturers pivoted to Bahrain and the UAE to fill the gap. Then the strait closed. Gulf suppliers now account for roughly 20% of the raw aluminum capacity the U.S. needs domestically, according to Austin Keating of trade publication SNIPS. Smelters are trying to reroute shipments overland to ports outside the strait — slower, more expensive, and those ports are already congested.

Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute argues Trump should temporarily suspend aluminum tariffs until the conflict ends, letting manufacturers restock at lower prices. Whether Canada would re-enter a market knowing the window could close again is an open question.

Gobble's Take: Two blockades, a tariff war, and a supply chain built on a single chokepoint — aluminum prices are the canary, and it's already dead.

Source: NPR

A Gunman Opened Fire on Tourists from the Top of the Pyramid of the Moon

Teotihuacan — the ancient UNESCO World Heritage Site outside Mexico City — became a crime scene on Monday when a gunman opened fire on tourists from atop the Pyramid of the Moon.

Authorities identified the attacker as 27-year-old Julio César Jasso Ramírez, a native of Guerrero, Mexico. He arrived at the site a day earlier and, shortly before noon on Monday, began firing at tourists with an old revolver while holding a plastic bag containing 52 .38-caliber cartridges. Seven people were wounded by gunshots. At least 13 total were injured — some fell while scrambling down the pyramid to escape. One Canadian woman was killed. Among those hospitalized were visitors from the U.S., Colombia, Russia, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Canada. The youngest person hurt was 6; the oldest was 61. National Guard members scaled the pyramid and wounded the attacker in the leg before he shot and killed himself. Investigators found a gun, a knife, and ammunition at the scene. The attacker carried materials referencing violent incidents in the United States in April 1999 — the 27th anniversary of the Columbine massacre fell on Monday.

The attack came less than two months before Mexico co-hosts the 2026 FIFA World Cup. President Claudia Sheinbaum called for stronger security protocols and analysis of "external influences" that may provoke such violence. Mexico's security secretary announced heightened ground forces and digital "cyber patrols" at major tourist destinations.

Gobble's Take: When a wonder of the ancient world requires a travel advisory, something has gone very wrong in the present one.

Source: NPR World

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• The U.S. Navy Blew a Hole in an Iranian Ship to Stop It. Iran Called It Piracy.
• Ukraine Is Selling the Iran War's Hottest Weapon — and It Costs a Fraction of What the U.S. Spends
• PEPFAR Lost 2 Million Patients Last Year. The White House Says That's Fine.
• Trump Promises a "Next Conquest." Foreign Capitals Are Taking Notes.