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Strictly speaking, some experts believe that Japan has been in violation of Article 9 ever since it created a ‘self-defense’ force, and in a very technical sense there is an argument to be made there. But practically speaking, Japan lives in a neighborhood that has become increasingly hostile over the past 20 years. Between China’s rise, Russia’s revisionist tendencies, and North Korea, it has become clear to Abe that his country’s ‘military’ has to take a different stance moving forward if Tokyo has any hope of fending off the sophisticated forces of Russia and China. That will require constitutional changes....

Revising a defense strategy shaped by the Cold War, Japan will soon release a new military plan designed to address China's increased threat, particularly in waters surrounding southern Japanese islands, according to media reports. Several Japanese newspapers this weekend outlined the main points of the National Defense Program Guidelines, to be released this month. The guidelines will deemphasize the concern about a Russian invasion from the north, instead calling for mobile units that could move quickly to any spot where there's a threat, particularly in the event of a North Korean attack or a naval clash with China around the...

NEW U.S. DEFENSE POSTURE Checking the threat that could be China By RICHARD HALLORAN Special to The Japan Times HONOLULU -- When U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld addressed the Shangri-la Security Dialogue in Singapore last weekend, most of the attention in the meeting and later in the press focused on his candid comments about China's military strategy, spending and modernization. The secretary barely touched on the fundamental revision in the U.S. defense posture that is intended to counter a potential threat from China or to respond swiftly to contingencies elsewhere, pointing only to "a repositioning of U.S. forces worldwide...

Iraq Militants Issue Hostage Death Threat to Japan Tue Oct 26, 8:53 PM ET World - Reuters By Michael Georgy BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's militant group threatened to behead a Japanese hostage it said worked with Japan's forces in Iraq (news - web sites) if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from the country within 48 hours. "They want the Japanese government and Prime Minister (Junichiro) Koizumi to withdraw Japanese troops from Iraq or they will cut my head (off)," the hostage said in a video posted on Tuesday on an Internet site often...