Will Japan raising its military profile plunge East Asia once again into Cold War tensions? Apparently, the country's close neighbors think so if their reactions to Tokyo's decision to reinterpret its constitution to allow its armed forces to help allies under certain circumstances are anything to go by. The Cabinet's decision was announced by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday. No doubt, this is a historic shift in Japan's defense policy. It ends a ban that has kept its military from fighting abroad since World War II. This is a major step away from postwar pacifism and widens Tokyo's military options. Given Japan's imperial past, reactions from China and Koreas have gone on predictable lines. China says it has “full reasons to be highly vigilant on Japan's true intentions and its future development.” Beijing thinks Japan's decision to allow its troops to fight overseas will disturb regional peace and stability. While South Korea has been guarded in its reaction, North Korea has called Shinzo Abe a “militarist maniac.” South Korea's reticence may have something to do with its close ties with the US, but the Communist North has habitually slammed Tokyo for failing to repent for its 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula and what it calls Japan's military ambitions. President Benign Aquino III of the Philippines has, however, endorsed Japan's move. So has Washington as was only to be expected. US has long urged Japan to become a more equal partner in the military alliance between the two. The change in Japan's defense policy is to the benefit of both sides. Washington wants Japan to act as its military enforcer in East Asia. Now its role is confined to providing mainly logistical support for US forces. Japan needs US support, diplomatic as well as military, in its dispute with China over Senkaku/Diaoyu islands captured in the 1894 Sino-Japanese war. Abe last year pressed successfully for the US to reaffirm it would come to Japan's defense if China threatened the contested islands in the East China Sea, even though the US recognizes neither Japanese nor Chinese sovereignty over the islands and seeks a peaceful resolution of the dispute. Drawing Americans into a dangerous and unwanted military confrontation with China is not going to help either Japan or the US. Abe has already expanded confrontation with China over the islands by wading into a separate conflict in the South China Sea where Japan has no territorial claims. To make matters worse, the Japanese leader has publicly questioned whether his country had committed any “aggression” during World War II and visited a controversial war shrine (Yasukuni) in Tokyo which China and South Korea view as a potent symbol of Japanese militarism. True, North Korea's nuclear and missile programs have raised security concerns in Japan. Nobody can deny that the US-drafted Japanese constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 has excessively restricted Tokyo's ability to defend itself. Japan has also to take into account changing regional power balance. But Tokyo needs to allay the fears of its neighbors before making such a radical departure from the policies it has followed after its defeat in World War II. It should take steps to avoid the impression that it is trying to put an Asian face on American security policy in the region. Tokyo should also make it clear that it is not going to emulate Australia and follow the US into every war it fights in Asia or the Middle East.
