Japan passes bills allowing it to wage war for the first time in 70 years

Posted on : 2015-09-19 14:44 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Japan’s ability to participate in armed conflicts overseas further complicates Seoul’s foreign policy strategy
[%%IMAGE1%%]

The administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe fought off fierce objections from the political opposition and public to pass new and revised national security legislation that gives the country authority to exercise collective self-defense.

 The vote by the House of Councillors means the de facto end of the principle of purely defense security policy that has ruled for the 70 years since the end of World War II, allowing Japan full-scale participation in armed conflicts overseas. The changes now appear set to become a major headache for Seoul in its regional balanced diplomacy efforts.

 The security bills were passed at a general session of the House of Councillors in the early hours of Sept. 19 with the agreement of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito coalition and three right-leaning minority parties, including the Party for Future Generations.

 The Democratic Party of Japan and other opposition parties had previously launched a fierce resistance on the morning of Sept. 18, with attempts to pass a resolution censuring Abe and Speaker Masaaki Yamazaki in the House of Councillors and a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet in the House of Representatives. The resulting major delays in the general session schedule led to an intense battle over the legislation that lasted early into the morning on Sept. 19 between the ruling and opposition sides.

 “The Abe administration has repeatedly engaged in reckless violations of constitutionalism and should step down,” declared DPJ president Katsuya Okada during discussions on the no-confidence vote the day before. DPJ secretary-general Yukio Edano also delivered an hour-and-fifty-minute tirade against Abe, whom he compared at one point to Adolf Hitler. In an attention-getting move, councillor Taro Yamamoto of the People’s Life Party did a “turtle walk” to the voting platform to buy more time.

 The legislation’s passage will be a bigger military role for Japan not only in the Asia-Pacific Region but throughout the world - fanning growing fears that an arms race could be touched off with China and its neighbors, and that Washington and Tokyo will exert greater pressure for a trilateral military alliance with South Korea.

 For South Korea, the changes are poised to raise serious foreign policy concerns. In Japan, arguments for greater political, economic, and military cooperation with South Korea are gaining ground by the day.

 Councilor Toshimi Kitazawa, 77, a Minister of Defense from 2009 to 2011 under the DPJ administration of Yukio Hatoyama, cited relations with Seoul as a factor in the Abe administration’s actions.

 “The reason ideas like the Abe administration’s [for collective self-defense] are emerging in Japan today is because South Korea-Japan relations are being weakened,” explained Kitazawa in a July interview with the Hankyoreh.

 “If South Korea and Japan were to truly cooperate, we could completely shut down the threats in the Far East, including North Korea,” he added.

 Kitazawa’s claim is that the Abe administration’s decision to pursue security legislation that violates Japan’s Constitution stems from the Japanese public’s concerns about a rising China and the North Korean nuclear and missile threats -- and that the solution lies in strong cooperation between Seoul and Tokyo.

 In the past, Tokyo has cited the presence of US military bases to call for the signing of military agreements with South Korea, including a General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) and Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA).

 “Changes to Japan’s security laws could also contribute to South Korea’s national security,” said an Abe administration source during a recent talk with reporters.

 “South Korea seems too uninterested in the things China is doing right now in the South China Sea,” the source complained, citing Beijing’s island-building effort in the body of water - a shared crude oil shipping route for both South Korea and Japan.

 But it remains a challenge for Seoul to accept stronger security cooperation with Japan without a frank apology for the latter’s past colonization of the former and good-faith actions on the issue of so-called “comfort women” drafted to serve as sexual slaves to the military during the years of the Japanese empire. A statement delivered by Abe in August contained no references at all to Japan’s occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

 By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

 Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

button that move to original korean article (클릭시 원문으로 이동하는 버튼)

Related stories

Most viewed articles