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Thursday, June 15, 2006

Japan: Ready for a real army

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is preparing to leave office with a bang. Capping five and a half years of assertive Japanese leadership - hitherto an oxymoron - Koizumi's cabinet is proposing legislation that would create a real defense ministry, and thereby bid farewell to the existing Japan Defense Agency.

After renouncing the right to wage war as a means of settling disputes following its defeat in World War II, Japan has been seeking to gradually become a normal power again.

The rise of China and America's post-9/11 focus on terrorism and the greater Middle East has provided further impetus for Japan to put this element of its history behind it.

The chief problem is that other bits of history - such as relations with China and South Korea - remain less resolved.

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