PRESS

Indeed, Prime Minister Abe can look to Japanese
contributions to international peace and security since
the end of the Cold War as the basis for his foreign
policy vision.
In a concrete manifestation of this proactive stance,
the Abe administration relaxed Japan’s arms exports
ban, which had been in place for nearly 5 decades. Issued
in April 2014, the new guidelines for transferring
defense equipment intend to enhance technological
cooperation with partners and friends, raising Japan’s
profile in regional and global arms markets. The move
quickly bore fruit. A week after the new policy was
announced, Australia and Japan agreed to a joint
research project on marine hydrodynamics for constructing
new submarines.
In July 2014, the newly established NSC approved
Japan’s research with Britain on the Meteor air-to-air
missile and approved exporting a sensor component
for the Patriot Advanced Capability-2 air defense system
to the United States. A network of defense collaboration
centered on developing hard power among
like-minded nations could well emerge from these
joint ventures. A proactive contribution to peace is
thus as much about empowering other defenders of
the status quo as it is about strengthening one’s own
capabilities.
In an even more consequential move, Abe partially
lifted Japan’s self-imposed ban on the right of
collective self-defense, the hallmark of the nation’s
post-World War II foreign policy. For decades, successive
Japanese governments strictly followed the
constitutional interpretation that permitted Japan to
exercise the right of individual self-defense, which
forbids Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) from aiding
friendly or allied military units that have come under
enemy assault.
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