Albay Vice Gov. Grex Lagman has paid tribute to the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Lagman praised Abe for his efforts to amend the provision in the Japanese constitution that prohibits it from establishing its own military.
At present, what Japan has are self-defense forces.
In a Facebook post, Lagman noted that the Japanese constitution was imposed by the United States at the end of World War II after Japan’s defeat.
Because of Abe, there has been public debate about reducing or deleting the provision that stops Japan from having its own military forces, he said.
He said a strong Japan is needed to counter the military adventurism of the neighboring states of North Korea and Russia.
He praised Abe for standing up the US’ imposition on his country.
This was an overreach of the US power and has become an obsolete foreign policy, he added.
“Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving former Prime Minister, was shot while delivering a campaign speech a couple of hours ago. I am hoping that he recovers although, based on reports from international news agencies, it’s almost an impossibility.
Post-World War II Japan was almost rendered defenseless because of the American-imposed Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution which prohibits it from establishing a military or solving international conflicts through military support and/or intervention.
However, because of former PM Abe, there has been widespread public debate at the turn of the century about the possibility of reducing or even deleting Article 9 from the Japanese constitution. The article is interpreted as meaning that armed forces are legitimate only for self-defense. This limits the capabilities of the Japanese Self-Defense Force as primarily for national defense and local policing. But we need a strong Japan to counter the military adventurism of its neighbors rogue state North Korea and an increasingly despotic and aggressive Russia in North Asia.
Kudos to PM Abe for standing up to the United States’s imposition on his country which has turned out to be an overreach of the U.S.’s powers and has become an obsolete foreign policy in this 21st geopolitical dynamic,” Lagman posted.
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