Eri Ikeda and Soichi Yamazaki, in Economic security–defense sector nexus: Japan and India’s strategic complementarity (The Pacific Review, 2026), challenge the tendency in existing scholarship and policy discourse to treat defense cooperation and economic policy as separate domains. Authors argue instead that Japan–India ties are increasingly shaped by an integrated economic security–defense nexus, where industrial capacity, technology, and military capability reinforce each other. In this framework, both countries display “strategic complementarity” that can build “collective economic security and strategic indispensability” in the Indo-Pacific.
The authors conceptualise economic security as ensuring “a stable supply of strategic equipment” through domestic production and technological capability. This rests on two pillars: self-reliance and strategic indispensability. While both countries prioritise reducing dependence, Japan emphasises supply chain resilience within an open economic order, whereas India links self-reliance more directly to sovereignty, indigenization, and strategic autonomy in the defense sector.
The article shows that the defense sector is the key site where this nexus operates. Japan’s declining defense industrial base and India’s heavy import dependence both create vulnerabilities in deterrence and procurement, including delays in acquisition and limits on technological adaptation. Although cooperation has expanded through agreements and limited co-development, progress remains slow due to structural constraints such as technology transfer issues, regulatory differences, Japan’s export restrictions, India’s insistence on domestic control, and concerns over technology leakage.
Despite these limits, the authors identify strong complementarity. Japan offers advanced technology and capital, while India provides scale and cost advantages. This creates opportunities in defense manufacturing, R&D, semiconductors, and critical minerals, enabling both economies of scale and technological upgrading. Cooperation in these areas can strengthen supply chains, reduce vulnerabilities, and enhance regional deterrence, particularly in response to China’s growing assertiveness.
The authors conclude that Japan–India cooperation represents a pragmatic model of middle-power coordination based on economic security rather than formal alliance structures. Its success, however, depends on overcoming institutional barriers and accelerating implementation, as strategic opportunities may narrow over time.