12/29/2023 0 Comments Free Pacifist![]() Can we maintain the alliance under such a circumstance?”Īmericans have been quietly urging Japan to drop the ban on collective self-defense. “If we don’t shoot down despite our capability, the American ship will sink and many young lives will be lost. warship protecting waters around Japan comes under a missile attack when our Aegis ship is nearby,” Abe told reporters in July. Abe says he wants to tighten security relations with Washington, and argues that failure to help defend American forces when necessary could jeopardize the alliance. But Japan’s responsibilities for protecting Americans are less clearly defined. Under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, American forces are obligated to defend Japan against attack. Nonetheless, China’s rising military strength and assertiveness, and increasing calls for Japan - still one of world’s richest countries - to participate in international peace and security operations has forced a new look at how and when its forces might be allowed to fight. Though formidable, Japan’s armed forces are organized, trained and equipped largely for defensive operations. Prior to the 1990s, Japan refused to participate in international peacekeeping operations or other missions that might draw Japanese troops into a fight. ![]() Japan has wrestled with constitutional limits on its troops for decades. Japanese warships and patrol planes have been taking part in multinational antipiracy missions off the coast of Somalia since 2009. It is about engaging in joint, collective self-defense,” Hosoya says.Īt present, about 350 Japanese troops - mostly engineers - are part of a U.N. “The purpose is to enable Japan to help defend members of other countries, be they peacekeepers or civilians. ( MORE: Return of the Samurai: Japan’s Leadership Seeks to Recapture the Country’s Former Glory) “Some people fear that if the interpretation is changed, Japan will be able to wage war on the other side of the world, but that’s not what this is about,” says Yuichi Hosoya, a law professor at Keio University and a member of Abe’s Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security. A new policy is expected, which will permit Japanese troops to come to the aid of not only Americans and other allies, but international peacekeepers and civilian refugees as well. An advisory panel is expected to issue a report by year’s end recommending that Abe issue a new interpretation of the 66-year-old constitution. It is a policy that conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to change. Under the current interpretation of Japan’s pacifist constitution, Japan’s armed forces are not permitted to fight on behalf of friends or allies unless the Japanese themselves come under direct attack. But had it been a real-world mission, it might also have been illegal. The soldiers raced to nearby positions, cutting off an opposing force threatening Marines nearby.Īs military maneuvers go, it was fairly basic. ![]() Follow Marine tilt-rotor aircraft swooped in during a joint training exercise at this military training range in southwestern Japan last week, dropping off Japanese ground troops and peeling away.
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