In the post-war Japanese constitution a provision was included which forbade japan from aggressive war and limited their military only to defensive action. Apparently for the first time since the war the Japanese Diet has the votes necessary to amend the document.
Do you think they will amend the document? What response should the United States and the other WWII allies have if they do make such a change? Does changing the document indicate that they have a desire, even in the back of their minds, to wage an aggressive war? Against whom? I doubt they have much interest in attacking the United States but they’ll likely tell our soldiers stationed there to leave.
Modern Japan is vastly different than Imperial Japan. If they vote to amend their constitution there will be some outraged statements in the news, and nothing beyond that. Germany reunifying was a much bigger deal and a potentially much bigger threat to NATO and Russia. Japan is not going to ask the US to leave when China, North Korea, and Russia are all nearby.
Japan is a universally recognized sovereign nation. They are restricted from waging war only by their own volition, and have a right to change that if they deem it appropriate.
US troops in Japan are there at the invitation of Japan, and they can be asked to leave at any time, and must leave if told to do so. If they do not, that in itself would be an act of war, and Japan could engage them defensively on Japanese soil, without even violating the present no-aggression constitutional language.
Yes, that’s another good point - US troops are not occupying Japan, and haven’t been since 1952 - Japan has been independent since then. It’s not like Germany, where West Germany formed in 1955, but was not fully independent until the reunification in the 1990s.
That’s less the issue than being able to join other countries is multinational actions or to be more aggressive about the specks of sand that everyone is so concerned about.
