In a bustling exhibition hall crowded with scale-model aircraft carriers, full-sized naval cannons and displays bearing industrial euphemisms for war, Japan on Thursday celebrated its coming-out as an international weapons exporter.

The three-day Maritime Systems and Technology arms fair being staged in Yokohama is Japan’s first military trade show since the second world war and comes as defence budgets and tensions rise across the region. The event represented a moment in Japanese history “dreaded by some, but welcomed by others”, one participant noted.

Since coming to power in 2012, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s nationalist prime minister, has pushed relentlessly to expand both the role and capabilities of the country’s Self Defence Force. As well as offering greater opportunities for international companies to sell arms to Japan, Mr Abe has engineered rule changes that reduce historical limitations on weapons exports in place since 1945.