Japan's efforts to update its security legislation reached yet another milestone on May 20 when a Lower House committee approved a set of backup bills for laws dealing with military crises directly affecting the country. The package, if enacted, will complete three decades of security-building efforts to prepare the nation for responses not only to direct foreign attacks but also to surrounding conflicts that threaten its security.

The seven bills, including one that aims to protect civilian populations in times of emergency, call for a range of crisis-management measures that form the basis of security policy. The package also includes, as it should, measures to combat large-scale acts of terrorism, which would be equated with military emergencies requiring the mobilization of the nation's Self-Defense Forces.

Generally, the proposed legislation seems acceptable. However, its underlying assumption of "large-scale aggression" is out of touch with reality if the term means massive landing and aerial operations involving conventional weapons such as tanks and bombers -- the kind of scenarios conceptualized during the Cold War. In the post-Cold War world, security threats to Japan are more likely to be "asymmetric" -- attacks by international terrorist groups.