Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Constitutional Revision: A (Tiny) Step Forward for Japan's Self-Defense Forces

Japan has never been closer to revising its postwar constitution than it is now. Japan’s constitution, promulgated in 1947, stands uniquely among other constitutions without a single amendment. The political party at the government’s helm, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), has announced via Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that it is seeking to revise the constitution in the very near future.
While revisions are being discussed about education reform and upper house electoral distributions, the most controversial part of the plan — altering Article 9 — and its effect on the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) stands out as the raison d’être for the proposed amendments. While a constitutional revision could work wonders for the overworked and underappreciated JSDF, the revisions that will actually happen will likely be underwhelming from a military perspective.

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