By Nick Bisley
Abe’s Constitutional reinterpretation will have profound implications for the Asia-Pacific.
On July 1, the Japanese Cabinet issued an eight page document detailing a set of changes in the way Japan approaches its defense and security policy. At first glance the decision seems minor, almost a technicality, but it represents one of the biggest changes in Japan’s defense and security policy since the Second World War.
Although Japan has one of the world’s largest defense budgets and a highly sophisticated military, the circumstances under which it can use force are unusually circumscribed. The postwar Constitution, hastily written by the Americans and imposed upon Japan as part of the WWII peace settlement, expressly forbids the use of military power as a tool of statecraft. Over time the Constitutional constraint was eased, allowing Japan to have a defense force but one that had only one purpose: the defense of Japan from attack. Under no other circumstance were the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) allowed to use their muscle: not to help Japan’s ally the United States, not as part of UN operations, not even if Japan came under attack while participating in post-conflict situations.
The Cabinet decision widens the range of circumstances under which the SDF can operate. It did so in the politically more straightforward way of changing interpretations of the text rather than trying to change the Constitution itself. The new interpretation continues to impose much greater constraints on Japan’s military than any other state faces. But once domestic legislation is passed, the SDF will be able to come to the aid of a partner state that is under attack in circumstances that can be construed as having significant consequences for Japan. The SDF can now fight beyond Japan’s borders. It is not a blank check: force must be the last resort and at the minimum level necessary to have the desired effect. Nonetheless, Japan can now be a more equal partner with the U.S. and others and it can begin to think about the role it plays in the region in a very different way than in the past.
Read the full story at The Diplomat