China Takes Aim at Japan’s Aggressive New Security Stance

According to the spokesman, Japan’s decision to adopt the laws makes the global community question whether Japan is going to “drop its exclusive defense policy and deviate from the path of peaceful development it has been following after WWII”.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a statement, “The Philippines welcomes the passage of legislation on national security by the National Diet of Japan”.

The MOD made the comment after Japan’s upper house of parliament passed the bills on Saturday.

Japanese lawmakers approved the bills to ease restrictions on the country’s tightly controlled military, despite mounting opposition as the country drips away from pacifism. It allows Japan’s co-called Self-Defense Forces to be sent overseas for the first time since World War II.

Japan’s ally, the United States, has welcomed the changes.

“After obtaining such a right, [Japan] can use it to get involved in regional warfare when it deems necessary”.

Jiang Lifeng, former director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s move to push through the bills was aimed at China, specifically at the South China Sea disputes.

China has blasted the Japanese parliament’s passage of controversial security bills on Saturday, just one day after the 84th anniversary of the Manchurian Incident on September 18, 1931 when Japan began to invade Manchuria.

The Philippines and Japan, in recent years, have agreed to strengthen military cooperation in the midst of China’s aggressive posturing.

The Philippines is locked in a fierce struggle with China over territory in the South China Sea.

Jiang Yuechun, a professor at the China Institute of worldwide Studies, said the legislation signalled a “fundamental change” in Japan’s defence policy, and was in line with its effort to curb China’s rise.