Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) celebrated its 50th anniversary of the founding of the party on November 22 by officially unveiling a proposed revision draft to the country's pacifist Constitution. One of the core contents of the draft is to rename the Self-Defense Forces as Self-Defense Army, which in essence is to reinstate its armed forces. By unveiling the draft on the 50th anniversary of the LDP, Japan is sending a clear signal to the people all over the world: Japan is anxious and determined to reinstate its military and moreover, the goal of making that come true is no longer a far cry.

　　Why on earth is Japan so determined to drop the name of the Self-Defense Forces and replace it with Self-Defense Army? The answer is loud and simple, to wit, Japan is itching to play an "international" role militarily. Japan made no secrete in its Outline of Defense Program released in the end of last year and its White Paper issued in August this year that the role of the Self-Defense Forces in the future is to serve as a "force of containment" and a "force of stabilization". Its mission is to cope with "new-type of threats and diversified situations", to guard against the invasion of regular troops and to proactively improve the international security environment. And its goal is to forestall and remove direct threats against Japan and improve international security environment. Hence one can see that the motive making Japan so impatient to revise its pacifist Constitution is to reinstate its armed forces and the aim of being so bent on doing the former is no other than paving the way for its military to project its presence outside Japan.

　　Japan has heretofore not shown a proper recognition of its history, which makes us doubtful about whether it can draw lessons from history and sincerely embark on a road of peaceful development. Japan has been quietly developing its military strength exceeding the requirement of self-defense and seizing various opportunities to project its Self-Defense Forces beyond the Japanese border, which merits people's close attention.

　　By Xie Caishu and Sheng Xin

　　(Nov.24, PLA Daily)