“The
cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved a package of
defense bills on Thursday and eyed their approval in the Diet before
July. If enacted, the legislations will give Japan's Self-Defense
Forces (SDF) much greater power by removing geographical restrictions
on its overseas operations, and allow the SDF to fight 'under certain
conditions' even if Japan itself is not attacked. Those bills indeed
are 'war legislations,' that turn Japan toward militarism, according
to Yoshiki Yamashita, head of Japanese Communist Party's secretariat.
The bills met strong opposition at home as they contradict Japan's
long-cherished pacifist constitution, marking a complete overhaul of
Japan's post- war exclusively defense-related policy.”
“...
Abe's ambitions since he took office in December 2012 to 'lift the
ban on collective self-defense, revise Japan-U.S. defense cooperation
guideline as well as expand the SDF's role overseas' will finally be
guaranteed by law, thus building a hotbed for the conservative and
right-leaning trend in Japan. According to the proposed bills, the
definition of how and when Japan could exercise the right to
collective self-defense or aid its allies is very vague, which means
they are open to all sorts of interpretations. It's particularly
alarming that Japan will, in this way, shake off the shackles imposed
by its war-renouncing constitution since the end of World War II.”
“The
war-renouncing constitution, one of Japan's solemn commitments to
peace for the international community after WWII, has refrained the
country from being directly involved in any war again for 70 years,
So, it should by no means be diluted or downplayed.”
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