Japan's Defence Minister Pushes Japan to Abandon Its Pacifist Constitution

Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said June 18 that Japan must abandon the pacifist stance written into its 1947 constitution. The statement breaks with decades of restraint and openly frames rearmament as essential policy. He cited China's opaque military buildup, though Japan has already doubled its defence budget to two percent of GDP and developed counterstrike weapons since 2022.