Hideaki Watanabe, commissioner of Japan's new Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency. (Photo: asia.nikkei.com)

(VOVworld) – Hideaki Watanabe, commissioner of Japan’s Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics Agency, has said a main challenge for his agency is to “secure a technological advantage” over other countries in the face of an increasingly uncertain security situation surrounding Japan.
In his address in Washington on Wednesday, Watanabe said the strong points of Japanese defense technology are “materials, sensors and robots.”

He said that another challenge of the new agency is how better to utilize advanced technology in the private sector for the purpose of national defense in an efficient manner.

The chief said the agency, which comes under the Defense Ministry, is ready to listen to any good advice about how to procure defense equipment more cheaply and effectively.

The agency is tasked with dealing with development, procurement and export of defense equipment, handles various projects that account for some 40 percent of Japan’s 41.2 billion USD annual defense budget.