Regarding Robyn Lim's Sept. 20 article, "Defense debate bordering on bizarre": It's Lim's inchoate ramblings that are bizarre. Lim fails to grasp Japanese concern that Shinzo Abe and his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi brought Japan too close for comfort to the United States militarily. A poll showed that more than half the winners in the July 29 Upper House election opposed revising Article 9 of the Constitution and nearly half did not approve of Japan's exercising the right of collective self-defense. Domestic issues and his own personal failings certainly contributed to Abe's resignation. However, in foreign policy, it appears that Japan is slowly and rightly trying to assert its independence from U.S. security policies. Lim and the United States are simply going to have to live with that.
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