Half of Japanese voters oppose dropping a ban that has kept the military from fighting abroad since World War II, a survey showed on Monday, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe readied a landmark shift in security policy that would ease the constraints of the ...
'Reinterpreting' Article 9 endangers Japan's rule of law
The most serious problem with the recommendations of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's advisory panel on reinterpreting Article 9 of the Consititution is that they reflect a result-oriented analysis driven by national security imperatives rather than constitutional law principles.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made his case again Tuesday that restraints on the Self-Defense Forces should be loosened amid a changing security environment in the Asia-Pacific region. "It is necessary to appropriately interpret the Constitution," Abe said at a press conference to mark the end ...
Abe offers concession on collective defense
The Abe administration gave some ground Tuesday to New Komeito in the ninth round of the coalition defense talks, offering tougher conditions before Japan would be allowed to exercise the long-prohibited right to collective self-defense. Debate between the ruling coalition partners has focused on three ...
Former Cabinet Legislation Bureau chief Ichiro Komatsu died early Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced. He was 63. Komatsu served as a senior legal aide to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who installed him, and supported Abe's ongoing attempt to reinterpret the pacifist Constitution to ...
Abe hijacks democracy, undermines Constitution
By short-circuiting the democratic process, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is abusing the trust put in him by the people. His initiative to reinterpret Article 9 of the Constitution to lift constraints on the Japanese military and permit collective self-defense is the most recent example ...
New Komeito's most important party ideal — pacifism — is being tested by the Abe administration's efforts to allow Japan to engage in collective self-defense.
Abe team presents draft statement on collective self-defense
The Abe administration has tabled a draft statement that could allow Japan to effectively exercise the right to collective self-defense, but the ruling coalition remains divided.
Abe bulldozes over DPJ in self-defense debate
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe once again underlined the necessity of reinterpreting the war-renouncing Constitution to allow Japan to engage in collective self-defense during a debate Wednesday, while the main opposition leader failed to capitalize on the opportunity to attack Abe and roll back his ...
