Japan looks to arm Philippines with surface-to-ship missiles

Japan's Self-Defence Forces fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian, and Philippine forces this month.

The Philippines, together with Japan's southwestern island chain, forms part of what military planners call the First Island Chain, a string of islands that hems in China's access from its coastal waters to the Western Pacific.

Other countries such as Indonesia and Poland are exploring procurement opportunities from Japan as they modernise their forces, Japanese officials and foreign diplomats have told Reuters.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama and Kaori Kaneko; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Edwina Gibbs)