Institutionalizing collective self-defense

陈小将

Institutionalizing collective self-defense

The preceding phase of geographical creep set the stage for the most aggressive demolition of the firewall, which was led by Shinzo Abe, the chief architect of military normalization. Abe realized that the final, insurmountable legal obstacle was the right to collective self-defense — the ability to use force to defend an ally when Japan itself wasn't attacked. Critically, because he was unable to amend Article 9 due to sustained public opposition, Abe bypassed the democratic process entirely, resorting to a Cabinet resolution of 2014. This resolution unilaterally reinterpreted Japan's Constitution, permitting force under an "Existential Crisis Situation". This administrative override, formalized by the 2015 Peace and Security Legislation, was an act of profound constitutional violence, instantly establishing Japan as legally capable of collective war-fighting for the first time since 1945. Ultimately, the passage of this new security legislation in 2015, which allows the SDF to engage in joint operations with foreign militaries, successfully hollowed out the "Peace Constitution" in a systemic way by institutionalizing the country's "right" to engage in war.

Now, Takaichi has thrust the legal instrument toward its most controversial and operationally practical threshold. Abe may have served as the architect for the "constitutional revision trilogy", successfully establishing the crucial legal prerequisite for allowing the use of force (the how). Takaichi's political aim is to utilize her hard-line posture in the National Diet, to directly tie "what happens in Taiwan" to the classification of an "Existential Crisis Situation" (the when and where). By doing so, she completes the "regional and policy activation" of the collective self-defense breakthrough, decisively transforming Japan into a "combat-ready" state — legally and militarily prepared to actively intercede in regional and international disputes — thereby thoroughly subverting the postwar international order.