known as Japan\u2019s Iron Lady<\/a>, easing restrictions is not the only change in her sights. At her party\u2019s annual conference earlier this month, she said the time had come to revisit the constitution, and suggested that proposals for change could be put forward in 2027.<\/p>\nBut although she may have the votes to push through constitutional amendments after securing a three-quarters majority in the lower house in February, many in Japan view constitutional reform as much more extreme than boosting defensive abilities and partnerships.<\/p>\n
Addressing these concerns on Tuesday, Ms Takaichi stressed that \u201cthere is absolutely no change in our commitment to upholding the path and fundamental principles we have followed as a peace-loving nation for over 80 years since the war\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mr Yang said: \u201cThere\u2019s a long-standing, self-imposed pacifism mindset among Japanese people, which is why I think Takaishi is focusing on lifting the export of weapons as a first step. She understands that it will take longer to build a social consensus around changing the specific clauses in Japan\u2019s pacifist constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, the export of lethal weapons can always be packaged as beefing up Japan\u2019s industry and economy. The ruling party will be tracking the response to any upcoming announcement closely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beijing\u2019s anger at \u2018reckless\u2019 move<\/p>\n
China reacted angrily to the announcement on Tuesday, vowing to resist what it called Japan\u2019s \u201creckless militarisation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Guo Jiakun, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, told a news briefing: \u201cThe international community, including China, will remain highly vigilant on this, and firmly resist Japan\u2019s reckless new-style militarisation.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a sign of Japan\u2019s mounting security concerns, Tokyo also sent a contingent of 1,400 soldiers to take part in the annual Balikatan war games for the first time this week. Held in and by the Philippines, along with the US, the 17-day exercises this year are the largest ever, featuring some 17,000 soldiers.<\/p>\n
In a separate military exercise in Japan\u2019s south-western Oita region on Tuesday, an explosion in a tank killed three soldiers, according to Ms Takaichi, who said an investigation into the \u201ctruly regrettable\u201d accident was under way.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ms Takaichi sent a ritual offering on Tuesday to a shrine honouring the country\u2019s war dead that has long angered neighbouring countries, but did not visit in person.<\/p>\n
The Yasukuni Shrine, in central Tokyo, is dedicated to 2.5 million war dead, mostly Japanese, who perished in conflicts since the late 19th century \u2013 including senior military and political figures convicted by an international tribunal of war crimes before and during the Second World War against China and Korea.<\/p>\n
A Japanese prime minister has not visited the shrine since 2013, but Ms Takaichi\u2019s predecessors Shigeru Ishiba and Fumio Kishida regularly sent offerings for the biannual spring and autumn festivals.<\/p>\n
Abe visited the shrine in 2013, provoking fury in Beijing and Seoul and earning a rare diplomatic rebuke from close ally the US.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, South Korea expressed \u201cdeep disappointment and regret\u201d over Ms Takaichi\u2019s offering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is already strong interest from Asia and beyond. Masahiko Arai, a senior vice-president at Mitsubishi Electric\u2019s defence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72,6499,8,17,358,1043,8060,8061,213],"class_list":["post-9495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-asia","tag-defence-industry","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-standard","tag-trade-deals","tag-us-content","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}