When the framers of Japan's postwar Constitution included the much-debated Article 9 prohibiting the nation from ever having armed forces or from ever going to war, they had a reason. They saw Japan as a nation with an incurable propensity to slip into militarism.
But recently some have begun to argue that Japan is now a "normal" nation and the ban should be lifted. Should it?
For example, we now learn that Japan's euphemistically named Self-Defense Forces have been creating and distributing dossiers on the ideological beliefs of those who exercise their freedom of information rights to inquire into SDF affairs. Japan's security agencies have long provided similar dossiers to firms keen to deny employment to procommunists and other leftwing elements. Prewar Japan showed similar zeal in tracking down and punishing people with "dangerous thoughts."