Abe's dangerous move

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made it public on Thursday that Tokyo would seek to exercise the right of collective self-defense, which would allow his country to fight alongside its allies beyond its borders.

That right has been considered beyond what is permitted under Japan's Constitution. Article 9 of the country's so-called pacifist Constitution, which has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, stipulates the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation".

Circumventing the difficult process of revising the Constitution, Abe has taken the course of voiding the article by having the government reinterpret the basic law, says an opinion piece in the Korea Herald.