diduread comments

@Chenchan

Ok, fair enough. If China or N Korea went after the US you're saying Japan couldn't assist. That is true, but it is also extremely unlikely N Korea or China or any other nation would even contemplate such a suicidal move. No serious analyst considers N Korea a threat. Why you do is beyond me. As to China, this is even less likely, though accidental encounters could conceivably occur.

What Abe is talking about is not "defence." He's using this as an excuse to argue Japan should be allowed to deploy in war zones. Do you really think any of the wars the US has fought in the last few decades could be construed as "defence"? Those are the conflicts Abe wants to get involved in. All this will do is add tit for tat and further anger China and increase the perception (real or imagined) that the US and its allies work directly Chinese interests. It's a bad move.