Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that the government will assess the capabilities needed to protect Japan's population from the growing military threat posed by North Korea, signaling his intention to accelerate debate early next year on reviewing the nation's defense guidelines.
"We would like to decide what defense capabilities we should truly have in order to protect our people, rather than simply expanding traditional ones," Abe said in a speech at the headquarters of Kyodo News in Tokyo.
He also said Japan's exclusively defense-oriented posture under the war-renouncing Constitution remains an "essential precondition."