By Tamiyuki Kihara and Yukiko Toyoda
TOKYO, March 13 (Reuters) - Japan will inform the U.S. next week that it intends to join the "Golden Dome" missile defense initiative and expects that Washington may seek its help with missile production due to the Middle East war and other conflicts, two sources said.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will announce the latest plan when she meets U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington D.C. at a leaders' summit on March 19, the Japanese government sources said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Trump's Golden Dome project, announced last year with an ambitious 2028 timeline, envisions expanding existing ground‑based defenses such as interceptor missiles with more experimental space‑based elements, meant to detect, track and potentially counter incoming threats from orbit.
But the project has made little visible progress so far. Details of how Japan will participate also remain unclear.
The Yomiuri newspaper, which first reported Japan's plans on Friday, said Tokyo hoped the initiative could be used to defend the country against new hypersonic glide weapons being developed by China and Russia.
Tokyo anticipates that Trump may request Japan to produce or co-develop missiles that could help replace stocks of U.S. munitions depleted by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, as well as its support for Ukraine, the sources said. It is still considering how to respond to any such request, they added.
Japan exported a batch of surface-to-air Patriot missiles built under license to the United States late last year, marking a historic break from its long-standing ban on lethal weapons exports.
The Trump administration is pushing defense contractors to step up production of missiles and other munitions that have been drawn down in recent years. Tokyo is seeking to bolster its own munitions reserves to deter an increasingly assertive China and nuclear-armed North Korea.
Patriot interceptors have been critical in intercepting hundreds of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones fired at Gulf countries since the U.S. and Israel launched their air war against Iran earlier this month.
Ukraine has also relied on Patriots to defend its energy and military infrastructure since Russia invaded it in 2022.
(Reporting by Tamiyuki Kihara, Yukiko Toyoda, Mariko Katsumura and John Geddie; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Pooja Desai)
