The suspension on the STRV-103 is also used for aiming the gun.Yes, that was my point. When i hear "amphibious tank" i think of something like the AAVP and not a normal MBT with a snorkel like almost all MBTs use it since a long time.
Is the suspension system really that useful? After all the old STRV-103 had that already (http://baike.baidu.com/pic/52/1159520749627313.jpg) and noone ever considered it worth copying in any tank design that came afterwards... till now.
@ rrrtx:
Are the restrictions that hard that they can't sell anything? Germany has pretty harsh restrictions too and still sells tanks and ships to certain customers.
Japans constitution clearly states that they will never even sell a bullet to another country for military purposes, this could be changing though.