Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday he will not set any deadline for his Cabinet to approve the lifting Japan's self-imposed ban on exercising collective self-defense, stressing he allow time for consultation in the ruling coalition.
"I don't have any preset time frame to cling to," Abe, who doubles as head of the Liberal Democratic Party, said at a press conference in Brussels on the last leg of his six-nation trip to Europe. "I first want to have the ruling parties discuss the issue."
The LDP's junior coalition partner, New Komeito, is against exercising collective defense, or defending an ally under armed attack, because it views the change in security policy as too drastic.