Japan's new security legislation has gone against calls to repair mutual trust with its neighbors and prompted increased vigilance in the Asia-Pacific region, experts said ahead of a widely watched trilateral summit between Japan, China and South Korea in Seoul.
Japan has abandoned the 70-year-long pacifism it had maintained since the end of World War II as the parliament last month enacted a controversial legislation pushed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government to remilitarize the pacifist nation.
The legislation's enactment marked an overhaul in Japan's purely defensive security posture, meaning the country could dispatch troops overseas to engage in armed conflicts for the first time in seven decades.
Though Abe has made assurances that Japan's security shift will proactively contribute to global peace, the bill added great uncertainty to regional security and thus immediately drew harsh criticism from China and South Korea, victims of Japan's past military expansionism which have been increasingly embittered by Japan's denial of its past atrocities and saber-rattling stance on territorial disputes.
RAPID CHANGE IN JAPAN'S SECURITY POSTURE
Abe's administration has achieved its aim of rapidly recasting the nation's military in an astonishingly short period of three years. The government reviewed its national defense program guidelines and mid-term defense program in late 2013, emphasizing that Japan should maintain air and maritime supremacy and further involve its forces in policing the Asia-Pacific region.
Based on the two documents, Japan loosened its restrictions on armaments exports for the first time in half a century and introduced new principles on defense equipment transfer in April 2014, allowing Japanese firms to export weapons if their deals pass government screening and to engage in joint defense equipment development.
Japan is planning to jointly develop submarine technologies with Australia and is considering transferring patrol aircraft and surveillance vessels to India and the Philippines. However, pundits have expressed concern that the defense equipment transfer could trigger a regional arms race, especially after Japan itself commissioned the "Izumo" helicopter carrier.
The new security laws mean that Japan has been able to unilaterally adopt a combat mode as its Self-Defense Forces could be dispatched abroad for the first time since the end of WWII to engage in armed conflicts or help defend its key allies.
"It is highly probable that Japan may intervene in every possible degree in regional conflicts, such as on the Korean Peninsula or in the South China Sea after the endorsement of the security bills," said Liu Jiangyong, professor of international relations at Tsinghua University.
The legislation triggered large-scale protests at home as either the bills themselves or the way they were handled exposed Abe's contempt for both the public and parliament and are widely considered by academics here as a destruction of Japan's democratic system.
"The security shift that has been almost single-handedly orchestrated by Prime Minister Abe has caused outrage from citizens across Japan who feel that the government has acted in an oppressive way reminiscent of Japan's pre-war military leadership," Teruhisa Muramatsu, professor emeritus at Tsukuba University, told Xinhua.
