The belief that Japan’s peace is guaranteed by Article 9 lacks evidence or causal foundation, critics argue.
Amid rising threats from North Korea and China, Japan has avoided serious national defense debate for decades.
This chapter introduces a dialogue examining pacifism, constitutional constraints, and Japan’s security awareness.

The claim that Japan’s peace is protected because Article 9 exists is a complete falsehood, with neither evidence nor causal relationship.
2018-01-05
The following is from the opening special dialogue in this month’s issue of SAPIO.
National defense: a nation so complacent about peace that even in the face of national crisis constitutional revision does not advance and nuclear armament cannot even be discussed.
That is why Japan is taken lightly.
For more than seventy years after the war, politicians have not discussed “national defense” head-on.
The left-wing camp did not even allow the debate.
It seems the bill for that has come due.
Japan stands defenseless before national crisis.
Two individuals concerned for the nation discussed national defense in the hope that the Japanese people would awaken.
Emphasis in the text and ～ aside from headings are mine.
Sakurai.
In Japan there are people who believe that merely advocating “peace” will bring peace, or that Article 9 of the Constitution will protect the country, and this reality prevents constitutional revision and serious national defense debate from advancing.
However, might not such illusions collapse in 2018.
The crisis posed by North Korea has reached unprecedented levels, and China’s President Xi Jinping continues expanding under the goal of placing everything under the influence of the Chinese nation.
Meanwhile the United States is turning inward.
Under an international situation that should truly be called a national crisis, Japan too will be forced to awaken.
Kent.
The claim that Japan’s peace is protected because Article 9 exists is a complete lie, with neither evidence nor causal relationship.
Rather, it would be more accurate to think that the Constitution itself exposes Japan to danger.
Sakurai.
Every country’s military and constitution seeks peace, so there is no such thing as a “war constitution.”
To say that only Japan’s constitution is a peace constitution and that only Japan is a peaceful nation is far too arrogant.
Kent.
What is called “pacifism” in Japan is actually non-resistance.
Since it denies fighting itself, this means that even if attacked nothing can be resisted.
It is not true pacifism.
There is no other country in the world that thinks so little about national defense.
It is as if the country is populated by “residents of a flower garden” who refuse to see reality.
That is why neighboring countries completely underestimate Japan.
This chapter continues.