THE GUARDIAN

APLN member Akira Kawasaki commented in The Guardian on Japan’s potential acquisition of first strike capabilities, arguing that it would be in violation of the Japanese constitution.

Any attempt to acquire the ability to strike enemy bases before Japan itself is attacked would be a clear violation of the constitution, said Akira Kawasaki, a member of the executive committee of Peace Boat, a Japanese NGO.

Even before the first shot was fired in Ukraine, the LDP had been shifting towards a more robust defence policy, culminating last month in a party commission proposal to increase spending on the military from 1% to 2% or more of GDP over the next five years.

Japan, Kawasaki points out, has the third largest GDP in the world. “If Japan spends 2% of its GDP on the military, it would become the world’s third-largest military power. This would be a great threat to the entire world, and totally incompatible with the peace-loving nation the people of Japan have sought to become under the postwar constitution.”

Read the full article here.

Image: Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, rides a tank at Camp Asaka in Tokyo. Photograph: Kiyoshi Ota/AP