Japan really is buying AAVs!

via Hong Kong Times.

Japan's defense department decided to add four amphibious assault vehicle for Ground Self-Defense Force while boosting its defense budget, local meda reports.
The strong stance of China on the disputed Diaoyu islands promtped Japanese government to spend 3 billion yen (HK$295.5 million) to boost defense along islands on southwest of the country by 2013, local media reports, citing government source.
Meanwhile, Tokyo is seeking to buy Diaoyu Islands for 2 billion yen by the end of September, according to the report. Officials are reportedly speeding up the negotiation process with the owner of the isles.

Wow.

When I first heard the news on MarineTV that Japan was looking to buy the AAV I rolled with it but thought that it could be a misunderstanding on the reporters part and that they were perhaps looking to buy LCACs for their amphibs.

Guess I was wrong.

Japanese Naval Infantry really is making a comeback.

Check out this article from early last year from the Japanese Security Watch (again, I dismissed the assertions...I was hopeful that they were true but didn't believe that the pacifist Japanese would actually follow through)

Iron Fist has always been the most controversial (and, until recently, least publicized) of the joint exercises. Since World War II, pacifist Japan has prohibited itself from having marine infantry, labeling them a military asset that, like aircraft carriers and bombers, only has useful applications in wars of aggression. Marine troops are also heavily associated with Japan’s wartime past; the Special Naval Landing Forces of the Imperial Japanese Navy conducted extensive operations across the Pacific Theater, from China to Wake Island. Necessity aside, this sort of association can make certain ambitions of the Self Defense Forces unpopular to a Japanese public with a deep anti-war and anti-military sentiment.
But slowly, like nearly everything about Japanese defense policy, this is changing. In early 2010, Japan’s two major political parties, the DPJ and LDP, both announced support for the establishment of a marine infantry force. The force, it was explained, would be a marine unit charged with a defensive mission: to take back Japanese remote islands seized by an adversary, a capability the Self Defense Forces currently lack.

Its interesting that the Japanese view a Marine Corps as being an almost totally offensive military force.  In my mind at least some of the US Marine Corps finest moments have been in the defense...Guadalcanal and Chosen Reservoir come readily to mind...
The interesting part will be.

Can BAE get this contract?  An initial run of 4 vehicles will certainly lead to many more (it should at least equal the Brazilian buy of 26) so this will be alot more lucrative than it first appears.  Will Samsung make an attempt to get it?  Or will the Japanese wait to see what the ACV will be?

I though armor sales would trail off drastically once the war in Afghanistan wound down.

I was wrong!