The Marmot’s Hole

Big changes may be brewing in Japan. Pressian cites a Mainichi Shinbun story reporting that a “consultative group” attached to Japanese Foreign Minister Yawaguchi Yoriko has submitted a report to the Foreign Minister recommending, among other things, that American nuclear-armed aircraft carriers be temporarily allowed to dock at Japanese ports AND that the nation begin reinterpreting constitutional bans on Japan’s right to participate in collective self-defense. The report also called into question Japan’s “Three Non-Nuclear Principles” - no entry, no possession, and no use of nuclear weapons - making it clear that the North Korean nuclear threat may make it necessary for Japan to possess its own deterrent. At the same time, another study group attached the Foreign Minister is advising that the nation trade the dispatch of troops to Iraq and a new cost-sharing agreement concerning the maintenance of American forces in Japan for a promise from Washington that Tokyo be granted membership on the UN Security Council.

Of course, none of this amounts to official policy, but these quasi-official study groups and consultative bodies attached to various government ministries are where laws and policies are very often born in Japan - the Diet is more for show. Watch very closely what Japan does over the coming months and years, because at the consensus behind the status quo is breaking apart, and the result may very well be a more assertive Japan.