Rewriting Japan’s Right to Wage War

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, the leading candidate for the next Japanese premiership, will revise the new constitution draft of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and stipulate the exercising of Japan’s collective self-defense rights, according to a Mainichi Shimbun report on Monday.

Last October, celebrating its 50th anniversary, the LDP revised Article 9-2 of its constitution that bans Japan from possessing combat power to stipulate the right to have self-defense forces. This in effect allowed Japan to exercise collective self-defense rights through fitting constitutional interpretation. However, the phrase “collective self-defense rights” was not included in the revision, to the dissatisfaction of some of the party members.

According to the Mainichi Shimbun, Abe is willing to add the phrase to the draft and revise the entire sentence to highlight Japan’s tradition, culture, and history.

Meanwhile, Japanese media reported that the Korean government has told Abe that it is willing to hold summits with him.

On Monday, the Tokyo Shimbun reported that Ban Ki-moon, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Korea, visited Japan early last month and told Abe, “President Roh Moo-hyun is willing to meet and hold summits for a future-oriented relationship.”

However, Abe is cautious about accepting the offer because the Korean government may demand that he stop visiting the Yasukuni Shrine as a precondition to the summit.

The Korean Foreign Ministry has denied Japan’s report.

sya@donga.com