Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is thinking of lifting constitutional restraints on Japanese forces that would bar them for example from shooting down missiles aimed at the United States, Kyodo news agency said on Saturday. Abe, who wants to raise his nation’s international security profile, also wants Japan to be free to exercise the right to collective self-defence, that is to help an ally under attack.
Such acts are barred by the 1947 pacifist constitution. Under Article Nine, Japan renounces the right to wage war or to maintain a military, instead keeping only a self-defence force. Any move to revise Article Nine is likely to cause unease in China, Korea and other victims of Japan’s World War Two aggression.
In a move seen as a step towards revising constitutional interpretations that forbid collective self-defence, the government plans to set up an expert panel this month to study the issue. A government source quoted by Kyodo said Abe was thinking of allowing collective self-defence in certain situations, such as a ballistic missile attack on an ally such as the United States.
The expert panel would study this scenario as well as others, such as whether a Japanese vessel could counterattack if a warship of another nation with which it was sailing came under attack on the high seas, Kyodo added. Both situations would currently be seen as exceeding the bounds of self-defence allowed by the constitution.
Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma said on Friday that Japan had interpreted the self-defence clause too narrowly. “It is about time the issue is discussed,” Kyuma was quoted by Kyodo as telling reporters.
“The situation surrounding the right to collective self-defence is very different now compared to when the former Defence Agency was established and when the Japan-US security pact was forged in the 1950s”.
