"Citing threats from China and North Korea, a government-appointed panel is urging Japan to reinterpret its pacifist constitution to allow the use of military force to defend other countries."
Kendra King's insight:
It is about time that Japan be allowed the legal right to use its military. To be clear, I am not for wars. I think wars are senseless. However if a country needs to defend itself, I see the necessity of actually being allowed to do so. As Prime Minister Abe mentioned “Are we really going to look the other way.” In all honesty, given how simple technology makes it for an attack to be carried out on them I am surprised Japan didn’t ask for the change to the constitution sooner. Plus North Korea is crazy and China can be ambivalent at times. Odds are now that the United States doesn’t oppose Japan’s change (and might even want them to be more active in the tensions of that area eventually), Japan will have a good shoot at becoming more militarized. Right now it is a small step, but it will be interesting to see if Japan is still peaceful years down the road if this decision is affirmed. Just think how much changed politically from the end of WWII to now.