Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is eager to drop the government's long-standing constitutional interpretation that Japan cannot exercise the right to collective self-defense. This is a dangerous move that could lead to military actions by Japan's Self-Defense Forces abroad.
It would change the basic shape and defense posture of postwar Japan, which are based on its resolve not to repeat the mistake of treading the path to war.
The Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 — which renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes and does not recognize the right of belligerency of the state — largely established Japan's postwar nature and helped it to gain the trust of the international community. If Abe has his way, this trust would be destroyed.
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