By Ankit Panda
Manila is pleased to see Japan’s new security laws adopted.
On Saturday morning, the Japan’s House of Councillors, the upper house in the country’s bicameral legislature, passed a package of controversial laws that will, for the first time ever, allow Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to head overseas to defend allies, a departure from Tokyo’s post-war pacifist posture. The laws mark a significant development toward Japan becoming a “proactive” contributor to Asian peace, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe frames the move.
While the new laws are seen with trepidation in neighboring South Korea and China, two states with a keen memory of Imperial Japan’s atrocities during the Second World War, other Asian states welcome the move. In particular, the Philippines welcomed the passage of the bill in Japan’s upper house.
Philippines’ Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario issued a statement on Saturday: “The Philippines welcomes the passage of legislation on national security by the National Diet of Japan,” Del Rosario said in the statement. “We look forward to efforts that strengthen our strategic partnership with Japan and those that would contribute further to shared goals of greater peace, stability and mutual prosperity in the international community,” he added.
Read the full story at The Diplomat