As debate rages in the Lower House over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s contentious security bills, lawmakers have identified one question as key: Would the Self-Defense Forces be allowed to use force on another nation’s territory in support of the U.S. military?
Under the pacifist Constitution, Japan has long upheld a self-imposed rule: that it must only defend its own country. Armed units of the SDF should never be deployed to use force overseas because it would exceed the “minimum necessary self-defense” allowed under the postwar Constitution.
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