| Summary/Abstract |
After months of contentious debate, Japan's parliament, called the Diet, in mid-September 2015 finally passed the Shinzo Abe government's package of eleven bills on security.1 This legislation, along with the revised U.S.–Japan Defense Cooperation Guidelines of April 2015, will transform the legal and institutional framework for Japanese defense policy and U.S.–Japan security relations.2 Japanese proponents of this transformation have argued the changes are necessary to make bilateral security cooperation more seamless to respond effectively to new regional and global security challenges and to contribute more proactively to international security affairs. Opponents, however, have charged that the legislation illegitimately hollows out Article 9 of Japan's constitution—which outlaws war as a means to settle international disputes—and could embroil Japan in misguided wars launched by the United States.3 Chinese and Korean critics of the legislation have echoed these criticisms by claiming that Japan is now remilitarizing.
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