Japan PM eyes uses of collective self-defence

Tokyo, Apr 7: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is thinking of lifting constitutional restraints on Japanese forces that would bar them, for example, from shooting down missiles aimed at the United States, Kyodo news agency said today.

Abe, who wants to raise his nation's international security profile, also wants Japan to be free to exercise the right to collective self-defence, that is to help an ally under attack.

Such acts are barred by the 1947 pacifist constitution.

Under Article Nine, Japan renounces the right to wage war or to maintain a military, instead keeping only a self-defence force.

Any move to revise Article Nine is likely to cause unease in China, Korea and other victims of Japan's World War Two aggression.

In a move seen as a step towards revising constitutional interpretations that forbid collective self-defence, the government plans to set up an expert panel this month to study the issue.

A government source quoted by Kyodo said Abe was thinking of allowing collective self-defence in certain situations, such as a ballistic missile attack on an ally such as the United States.

The expert panel would study this scenario as well as others, such as whether a Japanese vessel could counterattack if a warship of another nation with which it was sailing came under attack on the high seas, Kyodo added.

Both situations would currently be seen as exceeding the bounds of self-defence allowed by the constitution.

Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma yesterday said that Japan had interpreted the self-defence clause too narrowly.

''It is about time the issue is discussed,'' Kyuma was quoted by Kyodo as telling reporters.

''The situation surrounding the right to collective self-defence is very different now compared to when the former Defence Agency was established and when the Japan-US security pact was forged (in the 1950s).'' Slightly more than one-third of Japanese voters want to change the pacifist clause in the constitution, according to a poll published in the daily Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper yesterday.

The survey of about 1,700 voters showed that another 36 per cent want Japan to opt for a wider interpretation of its constitution.

REUTERS