By Zhou Xin

Since the Sanae Takaichi administration came to power, Japan has significantly shortened its policy timetable and accelerated discussions on revising the three strategic documents of national security and defense. In June this year, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) submitted an aggressive draft proposal for revisions to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Since late April, the Japanese government has convened expert meetings on the revisions on multiple occasions, while the Defense of Japan 2026, released in early August, has once again advanced the narrative of boosting the economy through military expansion.

For some time, Japan's moves, including substantially increasing defense spending, lifting restrictions on the export of lethal weapons, establishing a centralized intelligence and command center, and strengthening its capacity for sustained military operations, reflect a sharp shift in its security policy. They reveal an intention to completely break free from the constraints of the postwar pacifist Constitution and build a nationwide military system geared toward actual combat. Such moves pose a serious threat to the postwar international order and are unlawful on multiple grounds.

First, it violates Japan's legal obligations as a defeated state. The Cairo Declaration, the Potsdam Proclamation, and Japanese Instrument of Surrender collectively established Japan's core binding obligations in the postwar period, namely to eradicate militarism, accept defined territorial limits, and refrain from expanding offensive military capabilities. Building on the three strategic documents of national security and defense, the LDP's draft proposal would substantially strengthen Japan's long-range preemptive strike capabilities across sectors including the defense industry and combat structure. In substance, it seeks to restore Japan's status as a state with full belligerent rights and dismantle the binding constraints that the postwar international order places on Japan's right to wage war. The draft also openly extends the scope of Japan's security policy to areas including the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, unilaterally expanding the scope of military intervention and seriously undermining the postwar regional security order.

Second, it violates Japan's pacifist Constitution. Article 9 of Japan's pacifist Constitution explicitly stipulates that Japan renounces war as a sovereign right of the state, will not maintain land, sea, and air forces or other war potential, and does not recognize the right of belligerency of the state. However, the LDP's draft proposal explicitly calls for Japan to acquire "counterstrike capabilities," formerly known as "enemy base strike capabilities," and ensure the capability to sustain combat operations for at least a year at a time. It also ties itself to US nuclear deterrence and  calls for greater contributions to the military deployment system in the "Indo-Pacific" region, shifting Japan's military strategy from passive defense toward active deterrence and even preemptive strikes. Such moves openly trample on the pacifist Constitution and completely abandon the exclusively defense-oriented principle.

Third, it violates international rules governing arms trade. One of the core red lines of international arms trade controls is to prevent weapons from reaching conflict zones and to avoid exacerbating humanitarian crises. However, the LDP's draft proposal not only calls for the lifting of restrictions on arms exports across the board, but also explicitly provides that weapons may be exported to countries engaged in armed conflict "under certain circumstances." This would completely remove the previous restrictions that limited arms exports to five categories of non-combat purposes. In effect, it would allow Japan to supply lethal weapons and equipment to conflict hotspots around the world, run counter to the purposes of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), to which Japan is a party, and introduce a major destabilizing factor for world peace.

History offers a stark warning. A country that once launched wars of militarist aggression is now steadily pursuing remilitarization in the name of "defense," even though it has never fully reckoned with its history and its right-wing forces continue to seek every possible means to deny or even whitewash its wars of aggression. This is an open challenge to the fruits of victory in World War II. In the face of Japan's right-wingers' attempts to turn back the clock on history, all peace-loving forces must remain highly vigilant and firmly oppose such moves, urging the Japanese authorities to abide by their  legal obligations and the pacifist Constitution, halt military adventurism that breaches the postwar framework, and genuinely fulfill their international obligations. Any reckless attempt to return to the path of militarism will only bring grave disaster to Japan itself and the Asia-Pacific region.

(The author is an observer on international affairs.)

Editor's note: Originally published on huanqiu.com, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.