The Japanese cabinet approved yesterday a defense budget with a 16% boost in spending over the previous year. In a latest step under a new security strategy that Japan adopted a year ago, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government also allowed the export of weapons and components made in Japan under foreign licenses to the licensing nations. The controversial move is the first major revision of Japan’s arms export ban since an earlier easing in 2014, reports The Associated Press. “In taking the action, we hope to contribute to defend a free and open international order based on the rule of law and to achieve the peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,” Kishida told reporters. “There is no change to our principle as a pacifist nation.”