14points

19 October 2016 Pacifism in Japan’s Constitution is structured so that it does not allow war, the use of military force or military law. This is indicated in the Prologue and Article 9, as well as in Article 18. Along with the constraints mentioned in Article 9, the draft in a universal conscription system is prohibited for being “involuntary servitude”. In Article 76, Section 2, the establishment of an extraordinary military tribunal is prohibited and this applies to court-martials or...

9 September 2016 In the name of a “Proactive Contribution to Peace,” the Abe administration has lifted the ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense and the ban on arms exports, and revised the ODA (Official Development Aid) Charter as the “three arrows” (three pillars) of its security policy reform. The National Security Strategy, released by the government, in December 2013 announced Japan’s participation in the joint development and production of defense equipment and...

The Abe administration argues that its security-related laws are necessary because of increasing tension in the security environment around Japan. There is some economic background behind these arguments. The development of globalization can be cited first. The market economy expanded globally because the socialist bloc in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe collapsed and China became a market economy in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Then, a superpower, the United States, played a role in...

2 September 2016 The Guidelines for Japan-US Defense Cooperation (hereafter Guidelines) are intended to provide guidelines for military cooperation between the US forces and the Japan Self-Defense Force. First established in 1978, they were revised 19 years later in 1997 (The 1997 Guidelines), then were further revised to become their current version on 27 April 2015 in New York. Around the time that this second revision was announced, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito...

30 May 2016 Pacifism is the concept the Abe Cabinet exploits to justify its recent national security legislation. This term could mislead the public into believing that the new laws have something to do with the pacifism of the Japanese Constitution, but the reality lies in the phrase “proactive contribution to peace,” which the government uses when it explains these policies to its audience abroad. In my view, the essence of the new national security laws is nothing more than Japan’s...

5 September 2016 From the standpoint of international law, we cannot help but wonder whether the Japanese government will be able to judge on an independent basis and express its opinion to its allies on the legality of the use of force by foreign states. According to the new legislation for security, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces may be sent into action for collective self-defense in “situations of threats to the survival of the nation,” as well as be dispatched for international peace...

2 June 2016 As the Japanese Security Bills are expected to expand the activities of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) overseas, let us think about the “Act on Cooperation with United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and Other Operations (PKO) (International Peace Cooperation),” which is one of these bills. The main discussion at the Diet, which has concentrated on the risk to SDF members and the so-called “rush to rescue” mission (kaketsuke keigo), is based on the assumption that PKO are...

9 September 2016 What underlies the Security Legislation is the Cabinet Decision on July 1, 2014, on the “Development of Seamless Security Legislation to Ensure Japan’s Survival and Protect its People.” This Cabinet Decision was based on discussions among the ruling parties, namely the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito, following the publication of a report by the Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security on May 15, 2014. The preface to the eight-page long...

21 October 2016 The Legislation for Peace and Security consists of 10 revised laws (the Self-Defense Forces Law, the PKO Law, the Emergency at the Periphery Law, and so on) and one new law (the International Peace Support Law). What kind of activity might the Self-Defense Forces be able to carry out with the enactment of these laws? Primarily, the Self-Defense Forces would be allowed to actively participate in conflict situations which have not yet turned into a war (the so-called "gray...

18 September 2016 The peace campaign in 2015 has often been described as historically unique and distinct from previous peace movements, in particular, its predecessor in 1960, which struggled against the revision of the Japan-US security pact, since most of the participants of the 2015 campaign were individuals and mobilized neither by organized labor nor by student groups as was the case in 1960. However, throughout the long history of the postwar Japanese peace movement, the major peace...