A key security policy advisory panel to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe publicized its much-awaited final report on Thursday and — as expected — pushed for a change in the government's constitutional interpretation to allow Japan to use the right to collective self-defense, at least in some limited cases.
Abe was expected later in the day to order the ruling coalition parties to launch policy talks next week on the proposed change in constitutional interpretation.
Whether New Komeito, the junior coalition partner of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, will bow to his demand and accept the policy change remains to be seen. But given Abe's obvious determination and the LDP's overwhelming strength at both chambers of the Diet, the Buddhist-backed New Komeito could eventually strike a compromise that would allow the Cabinet to lift the long-standing ban on exercising the right as early as this fall, before the next Diet session starts.