Tokyo’s new ‘self-defence’ laws take effect, allowing Japan to fight in foreign wars

Japan’s new security laws took effect on Tuesday, enabling its troops to fight overseas for the first time since the second world war in a landmark defence policy shift in a country with a war-renouncing constitution.

The reform enacted by the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is intended to deal with the security environment Japan faces, such as China’s military assertiveness and North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. But it remains controversial among the public who fear the laws could erode Japan’s postwar pacifism.

The laws largely expand the role of the Self-Defence Forces overseas. The most notable change is that Japan is now allowed, in a limited manner, to exercise the right to collective self-defense – or coming to the aid of the United States and other friendly nations under armed attack even if Japan itself is not attacked.

Previous governments maintained the view that Japan has the right under international law, but cannot exercise it due to Article 9 of the Constitution that bans the use of force to settle international disputes.

Citing changes in the security environment, Abe’s Cabinet decided in July 2014 to reinterpret the Constitution and laid out three conditions to allow the exercise of the right: if a friendly nation is under attack which results in a threat to Japan’s survival; if there are no other appropriate means to repel the attack; and if the use of force is limited to the minimum extent necessary.

But the move aroused strong opposition among a significant portion of the public, including youths generally thought to have been politically apathetic, after constitutional scholars invited by both the ruling and opposition parties to testify before a Diet commission called the changes unconstitutional.