| Summary/Abstract |
In July 2014, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that his cabinet had approved a reinterpretation of the country’s constitution. Although Article 9 of the document, effected in 1947, stated that Japan had forever renounced war as a sovereign right, the change meant that the Japanese Self- Defense Forces (JSDF) would, for the first time since their founding in 1954, be permitted to participate in acts of collective self-defence (generally understood to be the right to use force to repel an armed attack against a foreign country that has a close relationship with one’s own country). Abe’s historic plan sparked criticism from China and South Korea, two countries affected by Japanese aggression during the Second World War. Both countries issued warnings about the resurgence of Japanese militarism, amid growing concerns that both China and Japan were leading an arms race in East Asia.
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