Japan146;s drift from pacifism

Shinzo Abe, who is virtually certain to be named Japanese prime minister next week, has said he will push to revise Japan8217;s constitution, including Article 9, by which the Japanese people renounce the right to make war. Is this the beginning of the end of Japan8217;s unprecedented 60-year experiment in pacifism?
In the last 15 years, Japan has been chipping away at its pacifism, which was a hallmark of the constitution the United States imposed on it after World War II. The 2004 ground force deployment in Iraq would have been unimaginable only a little more than a decade earlier during the first Persian Gulf war. But in that war, Japan paid 13 billion toward liberating Kuwait a good chunk of the total bill but got little recognition for its contribution. This humiliation prompted Tokyo to shed what some Japanese criticized as irresponsible 8220;one-country pacifism.8221;
In truth, Japan8217;s pacifism has always been pragmatic. It has reserved the right to defend itself and has developed one of the world8217;s most modern defence forces, and it has a crucial treaty alliance with the United States. While Japan8217;s Self-Defence Forces may not help defend the US, it hosts and subsidises US forces and bases on its crowded archipelago8230;
But the Japanese have been prompted to stretch the limits of their 8216;no war8217; constitution by a series of developments, including the 1993-94 North Korea nuclear crisis, the 1995 Chinese nuclear tests, the 1996 Taiwan Strait missile crisis, the 1998 North Korean launch of a missile over Japan, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the rise of China as a potential security threat and the North Korean missile tests this summer.
Abe is unlikely to bring fast change, even if he would like to. He has said he wants to amend Article 9 so that Japan can exercise its right to collective self-defence. Such a revision would theoretically permit Japan to use force abroad to help defend the United States and other countries with which it shares common interests. But public support for such a change remains limited8230;

Excerpted from an article by Mike Mochizuki. 8216;LA Times8217;, September 21