These days, Japanese pilot Kohta "Vader" Araki, who flies F-15s, is always on alert.
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But this summer, Abe said pursuing such an amendment was his "historic mission." And a real debate is emerging about whether Japan can finally evolve into a normal country with normal armed forces. "The constitution says Japan doesn't possess an army, navy or air force," Shigeru Ishiba, secretary general of the LDP, tells TIME. "Is that true? Japan does have an army, a navy, an air force. We have lots of warplanes and tanks. Let's stop telling a lie. The constitution and the reality of Japan are different. I think it is now necessary to make our constitution reflect the reality of Japan."
New Cop on the Beat
Japan's sterner posture--no more deferential bows--comes at a time of shifting geopolitics in Asia. China has already claimed economic superiority over Japan, replacing it as the world's second largest economy three years ago. Now, with confident leadership in place, Beijing is flexing its muscle over everything from trade to territory. Meanwhile, the U.S.--the historically pre-eminent, if geographically remote, regional policeman--is distracted by the Middle East and may be unwilling to endure further overseas adventures. "When we think 10 years, 20 years or 30 years from now, the power of the U.S. will decline," says Ishiba, noting the cuts in American military spending.
Enter Japan. Buoyed by a rare electoral mandate in two consecutive elections, Abe and his LDP envision a world in which Japan can not only stand firm against rivals like China but also share with an ascendant continent its national values: Democracy! Peace! Love for cute stuff!
Yet while the U.S. has enjoyed relative goodwill in the region, Japan's relations with some of its neighbors are still poisoned by the decidedly unpeaceful, undemocratic way in which it tried to fashion a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere more than seven decades ago. Animosity lingers because, unlike Germans, Japanese politicians can be equivocal about their nation's wartime guilt. Also, leaders in China and South Korea, countries especially brutalized by Japan, profit politically from stoking anti-Japanese public sentiment. "The phantom of militarism is rising once more in Japan," warned an August editorial in the People's Daily, a Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece.
Elsewhere in the region, Abe's combative stance has won him some surprising allies. He has strengthened economic ties with nations like India and Burma that are keen to hedge against China Inc. Southeast Asian nations are looking to Japan to counter China's growing military might, even if they once suffered under the boot of the imperial Japanese army. A Pew survey released this summer found that about 80% of Filipinos, Indonesians and Malaysians regard Japan positively.