U.S., Japan unveil new defense guidelines for global Japanese role
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A centerpiece of Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe's U.S. visit this week for talks with President Barack Obama, the guidelines are part of Abe's wider signal that Japan is ready to take more responsibility for its security as China modernizes its military and flexes its muscles in Asia.
The guidelines allow for global cooperation militarily, ranging from defense against ballistic missiles, cyber and space attacks as well as maritime security. They follow a cabinet resolution last year reinterpreting Japan's post-World War Two pacifist constitution.
The resolution allows the exercise of the right to "collective self-defense." This means, for example, that Japan could shoot down missiles heading toward the United States and come to the aid of third countries under attack.
At a joint news conference with Japan's foreign and defense ministers, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the first revision of the guidelines since 1997 "an historic transition."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/27/us-usa-japan-defense-idUSKBN0NI08O20150427