As the Diet continues debate over a raft of contentious bills that would upend Japan's postwar security regime, some scholars and experts are noting the need for at least some changes to the nation's defense posture considering the security climate in the region — and a more transparent approach to these changes.
But these voices are being largely drowned out by those on the left and right of the issue, who have attempted to control the debate, as well as an unwitting media that has seemingly been co-opted by both sides, they say.
For the scholars and experts who at least acknowledge that Japan, facing increasingly fraught geopolitical considerations, must make a balanced shift commensurate with the times, this has been a distraction. With a nuclear-armed North Korea lobbing missiles into the Sea of Japan, a China that's making runs into Japanese-held territory, and a Japan reluctant to join U.N. peacekeeping operations, something needs to give, they say.