A political showdown is approaching as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pressures the ruling coalition to agree to overhaul Japan's long-standing pacifist security stance, possibly as early as Friday.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is trying to persuade junior coalition partner New Komeito to agree to Abe's proposals for a number of new contingency laws, including the reinterpretation of the Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 to allow Japan to use the right to collective self-defense.
But some experts have pointed out that the 16 scenarios Abe has cited as reasons for reform are unlikely and many could be dealt with under existing security laws. They allege Abe may be trying to use those scenarios as a pretext to remove key legal restrictions that have limited Japan's military capability to an exclusively defensive posture since World War II.