To play a positive role in the international community of the 21st century, Japan should lift its self-imposed ban on the exercise of the right to collective self-defense, reinvent itself as a political power and win a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, according to Yukio Satoh, president of the Japan Institute of International Affairs.
"We should change our interpretation concerning the exercise of this right, not only for the sake of the Japan-U.S. alliance but also for active participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations," he said in an interview on Japan's medium- and long-term diplomatic challenges.
The government's position is that Japan has the right to collective self-defense under international laws, but is prohibited from exercising it under Article 9 of the Constitution.