While on a recent trip to Washington, I spoke at a joint webinar by the Stimson Center and Canon Institute for Global Studies think tanks — the latter of which I belong to.
Since Japanese media had already started reporting en masse about expectations for the nation's three most important national security documents, I dedicated some time on Japan’s new defense posture.
As expected, the tone of the Japanese liberal media is very harsh. An editorial from the Asahi Shimbun said on Dec. 2 that “Japan must not rush to gut its purely defensive security policy,” and that the acquisition of counterstrike capabilities “will effectively make a radical departure from its strictly defensive security policy principle for the postwar period.” The Mainichi Shimbun, another liberal daily, echoed on Dec. 3 that “It will lead to the deformation of the exclusive defensive posture.”