{"id":355,"date":"2004-11-17T23:05:09","date_gmt":"2004-11-18T05:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=355"},"modified":"2004-11-17T23:06:24","modified_gmt":"2004-11-18T05:06:24","slug":"japans-ldp-to-propose-self-defense-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=355","title":{"rendered":"Japan’s LDP to Propose Self-Defense Force"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan, having long paid its penance and then some, is about to consider strengthening its national role in its own defense<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Japan’s ruling party is considering constitutional revisions for setting up a self-defense military force and also making the emperor the head of the state.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Democratic Party agreed Wednesday to start full discussions on revising the constitution based on a draft outline calling for these measures, the Kyodo news service reported.<\/p>\n

Under the revisions, Japan will be able to exercise the right to collective self-defense and the Self-Defense Forces will be allowed to take charge of domestic security when mobilized by the premier and use force as part of international peacekeeping efforts.<\/p>\n

Under its present constitution, Japan is forbidden from exercising the right to collective self-defense.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said efforts to realize the preliminary proposals will start in the fall of next year. But the proposal may have a tough time in parliament because of opposition from other parties.<\/p>\n

The draft also proposes allowing a female member of the imperial family to take the throne. Koizumi told reporters at his office, “I think the Japanese public mostly accepts it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is long beyond due, and needed to match the country’s economic and diplomatic importance in the Pacific Rim region and worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan, having long paid its penance and then some, is about to consider strengthening its national role in its own defense. Japan’s ruling party is considering constitutional revisions for setting up a self-defense military force and also making the emperor the head of the state. The Liberal Democratic Party agreed Wednesday to start full discussions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}