July 4, 2019

ABOARD THE JS IZUMO--One of Japan's largest warships, the helicopter carrier Izumo, offers a glimpse of where its Self-Defense Forces are headed: For the first time, troops from a newly formed amphibious brigade participated in an extended naval deployment.

The Izumo left Subic, a former U.S. naval base in the Philippines, at the end of a two-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific region at a time of prolonged tensions involving China's sweeping territorial claims in and around the South China Sea. The carrier, along with the destroyers Murasame and Akebono, just finished a series of drills with the United States and other countries.

Island nation Japan's ability to project military power beyond its borders is severely constrained by the commitment to pacifism and rejection of use of military force in conflict enshrined in its post-World War II Constitution, though in 2015 it was reinterpreted to allow the use of force in defending itself and its allies.

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http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201907030058.html