Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's attempts to reinterpret Japan's anti-war constitution and lift the ban on the right of collective self-defense could start an arms race, a Taiwanese scholar warned Saturday.
Philip Yang, president of the Association of International Relations, said lifting the ban would be tantamount to forming a new Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, turning the unilateral military alliance into a bilateral one.
Japan can now only provide limited logistics and base assistance, but it would be able to engage in military intervention under the name of collective self-defense, he said at a forum sponsored by his association.
That means Japan could intercede if other countries come under attack, "very probably in the South China Sea" and its disputed waters if it considers the security of allied countries to have an effect on Japan, especially in terms of maritime safety.
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