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Originally Posted by Icon oclast
It's about time they sarted defending themselves. Let Asia come to some balance of power in the region. Japan will turn into a country that wages war abroad said a commie lawmaker. consider the source.
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Well apart from the issue of what's appropriate or not, in large part they are prohibited from doing much of that, and by our design, to boot:
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The [Japanese] constitution is perhaps most famous for the renunciation of the right to wage war contained in Article 9 . . .
The constitution was drawn up under the Allied occupation that followed World War II and was intended to replace Japan's previous imperial system with a form of liberal democracy. It is a rigid document and no subsequent amendment has been made to it since its adoption . . .
Much of it was drafted by two senior [U.S.] army officers with law degrees: Milo Rowell and Courtney Whitney . . .
The new constitution would not have been written the way it was had MacArthur and his staff allowed Japanese politicians and constitutional experts to resolve the issue as they wished. The document's foreign origins have, understandably, been a focus of controversy since Japan recovered its sovereignty in 1952. Yet in late 1945 and 1946, there was much public discussion on constitutional reform, and the MacArthur draft was apparently greatly influenced by the ideas of certain Japanese liberals . . . [source/more]
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It's precisely this stuff that leads to angry protests by conservative/reactionary factions who play patriotic music and fly the wartime flag at rallies and when driving their vans through the streets periodically in Japan.
Steve