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Japan enfroces constitutional reforms, can now fight in overseas wars

Tuesday, 29 March 2016 6:29 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 29 March 2016 6:28 AM ]

Japanese soldiers stand at attention during the opening ceremony of a military base on the island of Yonaguni, March 28, 2016. (Photos by Reuters)

Reforms to Japan’s formerly pacifist constitution have taken effect, allowing the country’s military to potentially engage in wars overseas.

The changes to the country’s defense policy took effect on Tuesday. The bill proposing them had been approved by the parliament last September.

The reforms fundamentally reshape the constitution, which stressed non-intervention in foreign military conflicts ever since the World War II.

The constitution now allows Japan’s military forces to participate in foreign operations in order to protect allies such as the United States even if there was no direct threat to Tokyo.

The law “is vital to prevent wars and protect the people’s lives and livelihoods amid an increasingly severe security environment surrounding our country,” claimed Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga at a news conference.

He added that the Japanese government will try to preserve the peace “through diplomacy and there is no change at all in our policy of proactive diplomacy for that purpose.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has claimed that the reforms are necessary to meet new challenges in the region.

Critics, however, believe that the modifications would damage 70 years of Japanese pacifism as the revisions alter the 1945 constitution, which bared Tokyo from combat except in self-defense.

Several demonstrations were held across the country against the reform legislation, with protesters calling on Abe, who had proposed the bill, to step down.

A Japanese soldier keeps watch as he overlooks the East China Sea at a newly opened military base on the island of Yonaguni, March 28, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

On Monday, Japan switched on a radar station with a permanent intelligence gathering post on Yonaguni Island near a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea.

“Until yesterday, there was no coastal observation unit west of the main Okinawa Island. It was a vacuum we needed to fill,” said Daigo Shiomitsu on Monday, a military official who commands the new station.

“It means we can keep watch on territory surrounding Japan and respond to all situations,” he added.

The station is close to Taiwan and the islands disputed by China and Japan. They are known as Diaoyu islands in China and Senkaku in Japan.

The Chinese Defense Ministry expressed concerns about the move, saying the international community should be on high alert over what it called Tokyo’s military expansion.

“The Diaoyu Islands are China’s inherent territory. We are resolutely opposed to any provocative behavior by Japan aimed at Chinese territory. The activities of Chinese ships and aircraft in the relevant waters and airspace are completely appropriate and legal,” the Chinese ministry said.

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