Eyeing China, Japan lifts longtime restrictions to allow major defense buildup
The policy change is widely seen as a major step toward rearming Japan more than seven decades after its demilitarization after World War II.
TOKYO — Japan has made a significant policy change to allow it to get the ability to strike other nations, a move widely seen as a major step toward rearming the nation more than seven decades since it demilitarized after World War II.
As Japan's relations with China worsen and the threat it perceives from its much larger neighbor heightens, the Japanese government gave a green light Friday to proposals it has been debating sporadically since at least 1956.
Japan had avoided obtaining strike capabilities, so as not to violate Japan's post-war, which renounces the right — and the means — to wage war, and to avoid provoking its neighbors.
