North Korea May Help Abe's Goal to Revise Japan's Constitution
10/17/2006
John Brinsley,
Bloomberg.com
North Korea's claim it carried out a nuclear weapon test may give newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the mandate he wants to revise the country's pacifist constitution and legalize the right to self defense.
Abe returned yesterday from a two-day visit to China and South Korea, where he improved ties with Japan's two biggest Asian trading partners. All three countries condemned the announcement by Kim Jong Il's government it had detonated a nuclear device.
``Kim Jong Il couldn't have handed Abe a better rationale for constitutional revision and a stronger Japanese defense policy,'' said Ellis Krauss, professor of Japanese politics at University of California, San Diego.
Abe favors changing Japan's anti-war constitution to legitimize the nation's Self-Defense Forces. After North Korea fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan in July, he said Japan needs to study whether pre-emptive strikes would be legal under the constitution. The government plans to boost spending on its ballistic missile defenses.
Divided public opinion on changing the constitution ``will at least temporarily be forgotten in the movement toward protecting Japan from a dangerous nuclear country with missile capacity,'' Krauss said.
Japan's constitution, written by U.S. occupation forces after World War II, renounces war as a sovereign right and says military forces ``will never be maintained.'' Courts have ruled the nation can keep troops for self-defense purposes, over the objections of pacifist groups. The country has about 240,000 military personnel.
Related Links
Click here to view the complete story.
