Japan must stop playing with fire

But Abe and his fellow Liberal Democratic Party leaders have ignored public opinion and pushed the legislature to approve the reinterpretation because the LDP has majority in both houses of parliament. With the controversial bill being passed, the Japanese government is expected to revise the Constitution and create a set of laws to bid adieu to Japan's postwar pacifism.

With the implementation of such a policy change, the Abe government is likely to expedite its military buildup, facilitate the development of the defense sector, and gradually increase arms exports and strengthen its military presence in areas of conflict overseas. In stark contrast to portraying itself as a peace-loving country before the international community, Japan seems to be preparing to export not peace but weapons and provocative ideas.

Japan's dramatic shift from its postwar pacifist stance has a direct bearing on China. Although Abe recently said that Japan would not take part in multilateral combat operations such as the US-led war in Iraq, the Japanese government can always find an excuse to do so. So, if China is forced into a conflict with another country over a territorial dispute, Japan could possibly invoke the right to collective self-defense and line up against China.

The United States' relative silence on the developments in Japan suggests its tacit support for Abe. The US not only dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japan to surrender in World War II, but also led the Allied occupation of Japan after the war. The US also should know that right-wing Japanese hate it for heaping such humiliation on Japan. And the day their anti-US sentiments get out of control, they will target the US in the same way that they have targeted China.

Abe wants Japan to get back its prewar status as a "normal state" so that it can develop as a military superpower and boss around the region again. But he should realize that great changes have taken place since World War II, and Japan, despite still enjoying certain advantages, lags behind China in overall potential for growth, and has been out-shined by South Korea in many areas and dwarfed by Russia in hard diplomacy. More importantly, China is no longer the country it was 120 years ago and, therefore, Japan should not commit the folly of starting a war with its western neighbor.

The author is a professor of Japan studies at China Foreign Affairs University.