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| Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe |
By Jared Genser and Michelle Brignone
When it comes to his new security legislation, the prime minister should listen to the Japanese people.
In the mid-1930s, Japanese General and Minister of War Sadao Araki said “[i]t is Japan’s mission to be supreme in Asia, the South Seas and eventually the four corners of the world.” Japan’s imperial expansion ended with the country’s official surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in 1945. Replacing its Meiji Constitution with a new pacifistic one, Japan embarked on an unprecedented era of democracy, peace, and economic prosperity.
Now, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, the Japanese House of Representatives’ adoption of new security bills may signal an end to the country’s pacifism. The legislation, pushed through by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), revises the current law allowing Japan’s military to mobilize overseas if:
1. Japan or a close ally is attacked, and the result threatens Japan’s survival and poses a clear danger to its people.2. There is no other appropriate means available to repel an attack and ensure Japan’s survival and protect its people.
It further states “any use of force is restricted to a necessary minimum.”
In the midst of angry protests, Abe defended the bills creating a more muscular military, saying they “are not for engaging in wars” but are a deterrent to “prevent war.” He has argued that the bills will allow Japan to better defend its allies under the United Nation’s collective self-defense doctrine, which allows for “individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs.” But he has failed to explain why Japan’s supporting role in UN peacekeeping, as one illustration, has been insufficient for the country to be viewed as making major contributions to preventing war.
Read the full story at The Diplomat