Even from the most distant corners of the world, a lot of military equipment is delivered to Ukraine. Japan can certainly be included in this category, which until recently had a very restrictive arms export policy.
Pictures of the J-M49A2 60mm mortar shells manufactured in Japan have been released online. Officially, Tokyo has not admitted supplying weapons to Ukraine, but the mortar shells may have been delivered by the US.
The weapon probably comes from the Korean War, when the Americans in 1952 allowed companies such as Howa Machinery or Takakura Plant for the production of ammunition for the needs of the US and its allies stationed in Korea. This is indicated, among others, by old versions of Kanji characters that they are no longer used in Japan today.
It seems that the Americans took some of the produced mortar shells with them and stayed somewhere in warehouses until the war in Ukraine. It is worth noting that the ammunition has a very long shelf life (excluding shells with a solid rocket engine), but these missiles can be up to 70 years old.
The 60mm mortars are lightweight designs, particularly favored by special units, as they can provide them with significant fire support over a distance of up to 3.5 km. These include, for example, the American M224 mortar weighing 21 kg, which fires projectiles like J-M49A2. They contain 153 g of TNT, hidden in a cast steel body that generates debris.
Przemysław Juraszek, journalist of Wirtualna Polska