Japan Press Weekly

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2012 June 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

Defense Minister persists in the right to collective self-defense under Constitution

Defense Minister Morimoto Satoshi at an Upper House Budget Committee meeting on June 13 asserted that Japan can exercise the right to collective self-defense even under the present Constitution.

He further said that he “is thinking of straightforwardly offering the opinion” to Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko on how to properly handle the collective defense right from the perspective of the need to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance.

Cabinet ministers have the obligation to comply with the Constitution, the country’s supreme law. The defense minister’s stated intent to instruct the prime minister of the best way to use the collective self-defense right is totally irrational.

Morimoto said that the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan bases security policy with the interpretation that the current Constitution prohibits Japan from resorting to the right to collective self-defense.

However, he added that he will deal with defense matters within the framework of that interpretation “for the time being”.