When Japan’s Parliament approved Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s controversial security legislation earlier this month, Asia’s most powerful democracy took a large step toward embracing a new reality. Yet with public opposition continuing on a scale not seen in decades, Mr. Abe faces a more enduring test of his leadership than simply using his parliamentary majority to approve his bills.
In announcing the end of postwar Japan’s self-imposed isolation from formal global-security cooperation, Mr. Abe must now convince his own countrymen of the rightness of his cause. So far, he has failed.
Mr. Abe may perhaps be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about. By any measure, his legislation to allow the exercise of collective self-defense is modest in scope. Unlike the militaries of the world’s other leading democracies, Japan’s will remain under such tight restrictions that it’s questionable whether the well-trained and well-equipped Self-Defense Forces (SDF) will ever end up fighting shoulder to shoulder with an ally or partner.
The full text of this article will be posted on Monday, October 5th.
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