The Japanese leadership is concerned that it has lost valuable leverage now that the North Korea nuclear crisis is easing, argues Yan Shenchun, a current affairs commentator writing for
The Paper.
A degree of tension on the Korean Peninsula offers the Shinzo Abe government an excuse to push ahead with a general referendum to amend his nation's postwar constitution, and to enhance the military alliance with the US, Yan says.
Memories of the World War II have led the Japanese public to be cautious about government proposals to change the constitution, Yan says. The Abe government would need a significant external threat to justify expanding the military and legalizing Japan's Self-Defense Forces.
The Abe government had long focused on China’s rise as a vehicle to push this political agenda. But, faced with a growing need to befriend rather than antagonize the country, Japan has turned to North Korea to stir panic among the public, Yan contends. Abe has also worked to exaggerate North Korea’s threat globally to win support for a proposed military expansion, the commentator claims.
These efforts paid off when Japan passed a new security law, removed the ban on the right to collective self-defense and the proposed introduction of missile defense systems from the US such as THAAD and Aegis Ashore, Yan says.