As soon as it is a question of the war in Ukraine and military support in kyiv, we often talk about the American contribution since the first months which followed the invasion of 2022, as well as the efforts made by the Europeans to make common front behind the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. We know less the role of Japan, rarely mentioned among the countries providing active support to Ukraine.
However, Tokyo, who voted in the first days of the conflict of economic and diplomatic sanctions against Russia, also contributes to the overall effort of military, political and economic support of the Ukrainian state. The American magazine Forbes also stresses that Japan has recently provided the delivery of non -lethal military vehicles – TOkyo insists on this point – to Ukraine, determining equipment in the logistics of essential missions on the front.
For example, the Morooka PC-065B military vehicle is capable of lifting three tonnes, while skillfully traveling through muddy land and swampy areas. It is an ideal tool to quickly erect fortifications and trenches housing the Ukrainian infantry, in numerical inferiority in the face of Russian forces.
In May 2023, the Japanese government announced that it would provide kyiv a share of 101 vehicles, including Toyota trucks and Morooka PC-065B vehicles. A few weeks later, these vehicles began to gradually arrive in Ukraine, as part of the promise of $ 10 billion made by Tokyo to the Ukrainian executive.
In Japan too, the military is in question
Thanks to their great mobility in the mud, their spacious loading platforms and their cranes, the PC-065B allow engineers to build bunkers and other fortifications, thus offering crucial support for the Ukrainian infantry to resist artillery and incessant drones, while rejecting Russian assaults.
The ability to move in the mud is not trivial, these caterpillar vehicles frequently entangled in paths on the Ukrainian front, especially in early spring, when snow melts and turns into a quagmire invading the roads and the trails. In a video dated April 8, 2025 and published on X, these PC-065B PC-065B could be seen on visibly not very practicable axes.
First Footage of A 🇯🇵japanese-Suppplied Morooka PC-065B TRACKED Engineering Carrier in Ukrainian Service.
Japan’s Self-Defense Force has supplied a mix of tracked and wheeled support vehicles to ukraine. pic.twitter.com/lvsbjiqiph– Osinttechnical (@osinttechnical) April 8, 2025
In Japan, we strongly insist on the country’s ability to provide active support to Ukraine without delivering weapons able to directly increase the number of deaths on the front. The country is prevented by its constitution which, in the aftermath of the Second World War, inscribed in its article 9 the principle of “perpetual peace”.
Due to current global geopolitical tensions, especially around the Indo-Pacific Zone where the United States and China are engaged in a fierce influence, Japan is experiencing rapid militarization of its country, embodied by the acquisition of American missiles Tomahawks, as the New York Times already reported in a March 2023 article.
In a country where the people “Give up the war forever”as stipulated by the famous article 9 of the Constitution, written during the American occupation, we are tempted to protect ourselves from risks. Bringing logistical support to Ukraine is a good way to remember.
