Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s advisory panel on security Thursday released a much-awaited report that pushes for changing the government’s interpretation of the Constitution to legalize the use of collective self-defense.
Later in the day, Abe ordered the ruling coalition to begin policy talks next week on the proposed change.
Whether New Komeito, the junior partner in the coalition with Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, will bow to his demand and accept the proposal remains to be seen. But given his obvious determination and the LDP's overwhelming strength in both chambers of the Diet, Buddhist-backed New Komeito might 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.