2013: The Year Japan Steps Up Its Military Role in Asia? -- CNBC
2013 could prove to be the year that Japan steps up its military role in Asia. A simmering territorial spat with China and Japan's assertive new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will see to that, analysts tell CNBC.
Japan plans to raise military spending for the first time in over a decade, boosting defense expenditure by 2 percent to just over $53 billion in the fiscal year starting April, local media reported at the weekend.
Abe, who was elected last month, wants to loosen the constraints of Japan's post-war pacifist constitution and has vowed to take a tougher line against China over a territorial dispute in the East China Sea.
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My Comment: Japan still has a long way to go to catch up with the other military powers in the region (i.e. China, North and South Korea, and the U.S.). But I have been going to Japan since the mid 1980s, and there is no doubt that what once an accepted commitment to pacifism and a limited military in the 1980s has now morphed into an acceptance that the Japanese military must expand to reflect Japan's economic position in the world. This is a seismic change in the Japanese mindset, and it is going to impact everyone in the region.