Military adventure could lead Japan into own trap

Japan's Defense Ministry is seeking by far its highest budget for fiscal 2018 beginning next April, which, if approved, will be the sixth consecutive increase in the country's defense expenditure, reflecting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's penchant for military expansion. The proposed 2.5 percent hike will raise the budget to 5.26 trillion yen ($48 billion), which the ministry says is needed to pay for upgraded missile interceptors, six F-35 stealth fighters, four V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, and new naval vessels, including a submarine and two compact warships.

A country constitutionally bound to maintain armed forces purely for defensive purposes certainly doesn't need such military equipment for national security, most of which anyway is provided by its military ally, the United States.

Yet Japan, under a bellicose Abe, has been setting one record after another not only in increasing military budgets but also in leading Japan on the dangerous path of militarism. Instead of sincerely reflecting upon Japan's wartime past and atoning for the atrocities the Japanese army committed before and during World War II, Abe has made every effort to revise Japan's pacifist Constitution, so that he can build a strong military.