Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s big electoral win cleared the path for the conservative leader to refashion her country’s pacifist constitution.
Drafted in the 1940s during the country’s occupation by Allied forces, Japan’s constitution has long limited its defense capabilities. However, rising tensions with China and pressure from Washington to take a greater role in its own security means fewer policymakers are “calling for restraint on national defense,” one expert argued.
The militaristic shift has been so sudden that some officials are backing once-fringe policies, including Japan gaining nuclear weapon capabilities, sparking concern among analysts: “The landslide victory does not mean the voters have given carte blanche,” The Asahi Shimbun argued.
