There is something grotesquely unfair about expecting U.S. military personnel to risk their lives to repel an act of aggression that threatens the security of East Asia while Japan merely provides such things as fuel, spare parts, medical supplies, and body bags for American casualties. However important the freedom and stability of East Asia may be to the United States, they should be far more important to Japan. Therefore, Japan needs to act like a normal great power and take primary responsibility for defending its interests and maintaining the stability of its region. Incredibly, the anemic reforms contained in the new guidelines have attracted ferocious opposition. Just as America's domestic welfare programs encourage an unhealthy dependent mentality on the part of recipients, Washington's international military welfare programs foster a similar mentality on the part of U.S. allies.
Japan is a prime example.
An entirely new approach is required. Japan needs to determine its own destiny and do whatever the Japanese people believe is necessary to protect the country's interests. That means that Japan has to become a serious, independent factor in East Asia's security equation. Whatever the virtue of article 9 may have been when the United States pressed Japanese political leaders to adopt it after World War II, the article is now an obstacle to a worthwhile and equitable U.S.-Japanese relationship. The impetus for meaningful change will probably have to come from Washington.