Even before the votes are cast in Japan's election on Sunday, one thing is clear: the pacifism that has defined the security debate since the nation's defeat in World War Two is fading.
Nearly six decades after Japan renounced the right to ever go to war again, a growing number of politicians from both the dominant ruling and opposition parties think it's time to shed the constraints of the US-drafted pacifist constitution.
More startling in the only nation ever to suffer nuclear attacks, cabinet ministers who once feared for their jobs if they broke the nuclear taboo now say with impunity that there may come a time when Japan should consider having its own nuclear arms rather than relying solely on an alliance with the US.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/11/07/2003074941