Even though the Japanese constitution explicitly bans the nation from launching a “first strike” against another nation, a top official in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) claims his nation has the right legally to attack North Korea right now.
The comments were made by Shigeru Ishiba, the Secretary General of the LDP and likely Japan’s next prime minister, who claims attacking North Korea would be “self-defense.”
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution renounces all uses of force to settle “international disputes” and also forbids the nation from having a standing army (though they keep the Self-Defense Forces, in essence an army).
The LDP has never been too keen on this, however, and Ishiba and fellow LDP leader Shinzo Abe have been outspoken about wanting to scrap the amendment entirely, insisting Japan needs to engage in overseas wars as a matter of “national pride.”
Still and all, LDP efforts to take this out of Japan’s constitution have yet to succeed, and it seems pretty clear that attacking North Korea would be unconstitutional. The SDF also aren’t designed to be an offensive force like Japan’s Imperial Army was, so even if Ishiba et al insist Japan has a “right” to attack it seems wholly impractical for them to even attempt to do so.
"…insisting Japan needs to engage in overseas wars as a matter of “national pride.” WTF? I hate to tell you that "national pride" is the cause not the solution. Look at recent incidents…the US invaded two sovereign nations, in the name of "national pride" and what has it gotten us? How about the enmity of a new generation of Iraqis and Afghanis who hate us – and will kill Americans – for what we've done to them…and for national pride. And the American government denies that what we are doing is detrimental to our "national pride"…or what our national pride used to be. It's kind of hard to stand as a pillar of human rights and opportunity to the rest of the world when we known as a country that tortures and kills children from flying robots. The scourge of this generation is going to be "national pride." And this clown who want to "engage in overseas wars" is likely to be the next prime minister? I'm betting that none of his spawn will be in the military units overseas getting killed in the name of national pride.