It has been Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ambition, for Japan to reinterpret its pacifist constitution and adopt the long-prohibited right of collective self-defense.
And after several heated discussions within the ruling coalition, Abe administration is looking likely to reach consensus on its final draft. Japan has been alone among sovereign states in self-imposing a ban on exercise of the UN-sanctioned right of “collective self-defense.”
The crucial factor has been the government ‘official interpretation of Article 9 of the constitution, which basically renounces war as Japan’ sovereign right and forbids it from threatening or using force to settle international disputes.
CCTV’s Terrence Terashima reports from Tokyo.