Analysis: What's behind Japan's shift on its security policy?

Speaking to the U.S. Congress on April 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida joked he never gets such a nice applause from the Japanese Diet.

Kishida is warmly welcomed in Washinton, D.C. as U.S President Joe Biden said the two sides have reached security deals constituting "the most significant upgrade of our alliance since it was first established."

"Japan and the United States and Australia will create a networked system of air, missile and defense architecture. We're also looking forward to standing up a trilateral military exercise with Japan and the United Kingdom," said Biden.

The two leaders also agreed that a Japanese astronaut will be the first non-American to walk on the moon, joining a U.S. mission in a few years' time, as they sought to enhance the alliance.

"Japan has changed over the years. We have transformed ourselves from a reticent ally, recovering from the devastation of World War II, to a strong, committed ally, looking outward to the world," Kishida said when addressing the Congress.

In late March, the Japanese government approved the revised guidelines of the "three principles on transfer of defense equipment and technology" in the latest move away from the country's postwar pacifist principles.

Japan's pacifist constitution, adopted after its defeat in World War II, prohibits it waging war or maintaining the means to do so. But successive administrations have chipped away at that restraint.

The revision marked another major shift in the country's security policy by allowing Japan to export lethal weapons it co-produces to third countries for the first time.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian has urged Japan to earnestly respect the security concerns of neighboring countries, deeply reflect on its history of aggression, commit itself to the path of peaceful development and earn the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community through concrete actions.

Reviewing the history of Japan, Liu Jiangyong, vice dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University, noted Japan had reflected on militarism and chosen a peaceful way of development after World War II.

It has developed economic and trade relations with some neighboring countries and both Japan and the East Asia region have realized economic growth and development, Liu told CGTN on Friday.

However, Japan is now going back to the old road as its economy has declined in recent decades and it's beginning to consider how to open up the military market through military production to revitalize its economy, which is in fact drinking poison to quench its thirst, he said.

Once the Japanese government funds and encourages research institutes, schools and businesses to produce weapons, a military-industrial complex might be formed in Japan, which is similar to the model of the U.S., he added.

Divided support

On April 10, the U.S. affirmed its support for Japan to enhance its defense capabilities, including its plans to increase the budget for its defense capabilities and its decision to possess counterstrike capabilities, according to a joint leaders' statement.

Despite strong support from the U.S., the Japanese prime minister's ambitious moves to boost the country's military power have not won public support at home.

Japanese residents held a rally on Tuesday to protest against the government's further military cooperation with the U.S., which they see as an irreversible path toward war.

A NHK poll released in February found over half of respondents were against the export revision while only 31 percent supported such a move.

Amid the slush fund scandal of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, approval rating for Kishida's cabinet dropped to a record low of 16.6 percent in April, a Jiji Press opinion poll shows, while the disapproval rate climbed to 59.4 percent.

It is gravely disturbing that the U.S. and its allies cobble together exclusive groupings and stoke bloc confrontation to the detriment of peace and stability in the region, Han Zhili, professor of the Institute of Asian Studies at China Foreign Affairs University, said on an opinion piece for CGTN.

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