Japan Press Weekly

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2014 February 5 - 11 [POLITICS]

Japan can use collective self-defense right by changing constitutional interpretation: Abe

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo expressed his view on February 5 at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting that Japan will be able to exercise the right to collective self-defense by changing the interpretation of the Constitution.

This is the first time for the prime minister to officially announce this assertion in Diet deliberations.

In reply to a question from Hata Yuichiro, a Democratic Party member of the House of Councilors, Abe said, “If the government gives a new constitutional interpretation in a proper way, it (the use of the right to collective self-defense) will be possible. Amending the Constitution is not necessary.”

Exercising the right to collective self-defense means that when a close ally is attacked by an enemy, Japan can engage in a counterattack alongside the ally. It has nothing to do with the defense of Japan.

Japan’s successive governments have maintained the stance that the supreme law prohibits the country from exercising the right.

If the Self-Defense Forces are allowed to take military action outside the nation by reinterpreting the Constitution, the war-renouncing Article 9 will turn into a dead letter.

Japan’s rightists, including Abe, are aiming for a de facto change of the top law without following the constitutional amendment process required by Article 96, such as the Diet initiation and a national referendum.

The prime minister’s advisory panel on national security is expected to compile a report as early as April to enable the SDF to use its forces overseas. Based on the report, the Abe Cabinet is poised to push ahead with the move to undermine the pacifist Constitution.


Past related article:
> Right to collective self-defense contradicts US needs: ex-gov’t official [November 13, 2013]