From Pacifism to Realism: The Rearmament of Japan
In geopolitics, significant shifts sometimes get blurred behind more pressing events happening at the time. However, a fully armoured samurai warrior mounted on a charging steed was emblazoned on the cover of Japan's defence white paper in 2021, and it was one such shift. This white paper symbolized a change on a very fundamental level in Japan's national security philosophy. For the first time, the report links Taiwan directly to the security of Japan.
However, all this took time to happen. Since 2014, Shinzo Abe's government has been trying to reinterpret Article 9 - The no war clause of the Japanese constitution. A shock to the system spurs the rapid change in the Japanese military mindset. It was Commodore Mathew Perry's ships in July of 1853 and the Russo-Ukrainian war in Feb...