Defense chief opposed 'deceiving' people with constitutional 'interpretation techniques'

Defense Minister Gen Nakatani voiced opposition just two years ago to reinterpreting the Constitution in order to end Japan's ban on helping an allied nation defend itself, contradicting the Abe administration's position.

In the August 2013 edition of the journal New Leader, Nakatani, then a deputy secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party, said he did not want to "deceive" people with "interpretation techniques" and that the Constitution should be amended before allowing the country to exercise the right to collective self-defense.

"As I have said when I was a Cabinet member that 'Japan cannot exercise the right to collective self-defense,' I cannot say the country 'can do that after all,' " he said in a dialogue with a nonfiction writer.