September 27, 2013
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2013 September 25 - October 1 [POLITICS]
Call me ‘militarist’, if you want: PM Abe |
Abe delivered an address that day at a meeting hosted by the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in the United States. In his speech, the prime minister proudly stated that his government has increased its defense budget this year for the first time in 11 years. He also referred to the Chinese military buildup without mentioning China by name, saying, “We have an immediate neighbor whose military expenditure is at least twice as large as Japan’s,” and hinted that an increase in the Japanese defense budget is minimal compared to China’s.
In addition, PM Abe expressed his firm intention to allow the country to exercise the right to collective self-defense, which Japan’s successive administrations have considered “unconstitutional”, as well as to set up a National Security Council. He indicated his intent to turn Japan into a nation that can fight wars in the name of being a “Proactive Contributor to Peace”.
On the same day, Abe talked about Japan’s energy policy in his speech at the New York Stock Exchange. Without once mentioning the radioactive water leakage at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, he said, “Japan will continue to make contributions to the world in the area of safety technology for nuclear reactors. There will be no abandoning them.”
China and South Korea have often criticized Abe as a “militarist” because he intends to revise Japan’s pacifist Constitution for the worse and his cabinet members have repeatedly visited the Yasukuni Shrine which honors Japan’s war criminals. It is no wonder that Abe is called a “militarist” as his government has worked out security policies so that Japan can wage wars abroad alongside the U.S.
If the prime minister wants to counter the criticism, he should take the initiative in building a lasting peace and in promoting disarmament in Northeast Asia.
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