Japan said to renew push for first offensive weapons since WWII

TOKYO – A policy research group in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party will propose that Japan arm itself with offensive weapons for the first time since World War II, according to a party member.

As fears mount over North Korea’s growing military prowess, the group will also recommend that Japan step up its capacity to intercept incoming missiles by considering new technology such as Terminal High Altitude Area Defense – known as Thaad – or Aegis Ashore defense systems, according to the LDP member. The proposal will be presented to the party’s security and defense panels on Wednesday and submitted to the government afterward, the person said, asking not to be identified before the announcement.

Hemmed in by a pacifist constitution it adopted after the war, Japan relies heavily on the U.S. to deter growing regional threats. Successive Japanese administrations since the 1950s have said that the country has the right to attack a foreign base if it’s under imminent threat of attack, but the government has never obtained the means to do so, partly out of concern it would revive memories of its past aggression in the region.

The Asahi newspaper earlier reported that the policy group would suggest obtaining cruise missiles as one option. While proposals to acquire a long-range strike capability have been submitted several times in the past, North Korea’s simultaneous launch of four ballistic missiles earlier this month – three of which fell into Japan’s exclusive economic zone – prompted Abe to refer to a “new level of threat.”