Japanese Cabinet lifts limits on self-defense

Expert says move will ‘add more uncertainty to the region’s future’

Thousands of demonstrators from all over Japan loudly protested outside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s official residence on Tuesday after he announced his Cabinet’s decision to lift the decadeslong ban on collective self-defense.

The Cabinet announced it will reinterpret Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution to allow for collective selfdefense, or coming to the aid of an ally under attack. The article bans the use of military force to settle international disputes and prohibits Tokyo from sending troops overseas to fight.

On Tuesday, Beijing protested Tokyo’s strategy of pushing a domestic political agenda by hyping the “China threat”.

The Japanese Cabinet has taken unprecedented measures in military and security fields, which has prompted “a major change in Japan’s defense policies”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. “People cannot help but question whether Japan will change its path of peaceful development, which has been upheld since the war,” Hong said.

e South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement that “when it comes to Japan’s security discussions, the Japanese government should dispel doubts and concerns stemming from history, abandon historical revisionism and behave properly in a bid to win confidence from neighboring countries.”

A Japan Times editorial described the new interpretation as “a fundamental departure from Japan’s postwar defense posture”.

The move also met with widespread political opposition in Japan.

The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, denounced the reinterpretation as a “backroom deal that will not be recognized”. The Japanese Communist Party said the reinterpretation violated the Constitution.

Yang Bojiang, a senior expert on Japan studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the new interpretation marks “a turning point in Japan’s postwar security policy history”, and it “does not bode well”.

“Reactivating Japan’s collective selfdefense abilities will worsen complexities in the region and add more uncertainty to the region’s future. ... It will prompt Japan’s Asian neighbors to adjust their policies,” he said.

Kazutoshi Hando, a prominent Japanese expert on the Showa Era (192689), warned in an interview with Japan’s Jiji Press that the reinterpretation will “completely nullify Article 9 of the Constitution”.

He forecast that Abe would seek to introduce a law to transform Japan’s self-defense forces into a national military force. “That would be the point of no return. Japan would become a ‘normal’ country that is prepared for war,” Hando said.

Shigeki Okuno, a 30-year-old social sciences major at Waseda University, said: “I oppose the collective selfdefense because it will pave the way to war. Abe wants to restore Japan’s militarism.

“We don’t like the tension in the East China Sea, and we’ll continue to protest. Today is not the end but the beginning,” the student said.

At a discussion organized by Japan’s Social Democratic Party, Toru Hayano, a professor at Oberlin University in Tokyo, said: “The Abe Cabinet will send young people to overseas battlefields.”

Feng Wei, a Japan studies professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, said Tokyo is breaking away from the tradition of not launching a preemptive attack.

YONHAP / AFP Protesters gather outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul on Tuesday to demonstrate their opposition to the Japanese government’s plan to ease controls on its military.