{"id":2311,"date":"2015-05-14T21:30:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T21:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5917.temp.domains\/~iriacom\/\/news\/?p=2311"},"modified":"2015-05-14T21:30:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T21:30:01","slug":"japan-cabinet-approves-bill-to-increase-military-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/japan-cabinet-approves-bill-to-increase-military-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan cabinet approves bill to increase military power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japan\u2019s cabinet has approved draft laws which would trigger a dramatic shift in security policy, allowing the\u00a0military to fight overseas for the first time since World War II.<\/p>\n

The cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has approved legislation authorizing Japan to expand its military capacity beyond self-defense, allowing it to play a greater international role. The bills will now be debated in parliament.<\/p>\n

If passed into law, the bills would overturn a US-drafted pacifist constitution signed by Japan after its defeat in World War II, which banned the use of force as a means of settling international disputes.<\/p>\n

The latest move comes after a revision of US-Japan defense guidelines which expanded cooperation between the two countries as they seek to respond to China\u2019s increasingly assertive military posturing in the region.<\/p>\n

\"US<\/a>

US President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Abe says the existing legislation leaves Japan vulnerable amid China’s increasingly assertive presence in the region, adding that Tokyo should be better prepared to defend itself while doing more to aid international peacekeeping efforts.<\/p>\n

The bills would remove geographic restrictions on where the military can operate, making it easier for Japan to support other militaries. It would allow Tokyo to use force under certain conditions, such as when an attack on another country carries a threat to Japan.<\/p>\n

The proposals would allow Japan to defend other countries under attack.<\/p>\n

Although, it could worsen ties with Beijing, already strained by feuds over the wartime past and disputed territory.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for China\u2019s foreign ministry responded to the news saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have repeated many times before that due to historical reasons, Asian neighbouring countries and the international community pay a high level of attention to any changes in Japan\u2019s security policy. We hope that Japan can learn the lessons of history, uphold the path of peaceful development, do more real positive things and play a bigger constructive role in this Asian region in which we coexist for peace, stability and joint development.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bills are expected to pass parliamentary approval given the ruling bloc\u2019s majority, although opinion polls show citizens are confused and divided over the changes.<\/p>\n

RT\/EN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan\u2019s cabinet has approved draft laws which would trigger a dramatic shift in security policy, allowing the\u00a0military […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[124,1],"tags":[137,45,6,46,5,48,7],"class_list":["post-2311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-news","tag-asia","tag-china","tag-defense","tag-japan","tag-military","tag-territorial-dispute","tag-u-s"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Japan-Military.jpg?fit=690%2C365&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-Bh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2317,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311\/revisions\/2317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}