The Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition group, has so far lacked a clear-cut security policy. The reason is clear. As a "scratch team" put together by breakaways from various parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party and the former Japan Socialist Party, the DPJ has found that its members' views on security issues vary widely.
Now, however, three years after its inauguration, the party has framed a basic security policy. Being a product of compromise, it skirts some key questions. But it also includes bold statements suggesting that the party's policy is based on a determination to take the reins of government in the near future.
In fact, the DPJ is in a position to influence the direction of the nation's security policy in the 21st century. This is a far cry from the situation that prevailed in the Cold-War era, when the the LDP and the JSP -- the two largest parties, with diametrically opposite world views -- were locked in an unproductive ideological confrontation. In that kind of context, the security debate could make little meaningful progress.