Akinori Eto, the newly appointed security legislation minister, said Wednesday he will try hard to win the public over on accepting the historic change in security policy that will let the Japanese military use force under the right to collective self-defense.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appointed him to the newly created post in Wednesday's Cabinet reshuffle.

Eto, a 58-year-old Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, is tasked with addressing concerns that Japan may depart from its decades-old pacifism policy and with smoothing the way toward passing the legal changes needed to let the Self-Defense Forces defend allies under armed attack — even when Japan itself is not facing a direct threat.