Political dynamics aside, even some Defense Agency officials admit the emergency-contingency bills the ruling coalition plans to carry over to the next Diet session were flawed from the start.
The bills, hastily prepared under the initiative of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, are far from perfect, the officials say, because they are the product of compromise and fail to satisfy either doves or hawks.
The legislation, which would outline how Japan would respond to a military attack, has been a longtime taboo under the war-renouncing Constitution.