This is John Batsler, colleague Lance Gatling in Tokyo, commenting on Takeichi Sinai, the Japanese

Prime Minister, new Prime Minister, the first woman in the post, who is known as Hawkesh and New

Ubat.

She takes an opportunity that's offered to her by some of her coalition, some of people who have doubts about her leadership,

to answer if Taiwan is attacked then?

Here, the term collective defense.

Collective defense.

Collective, that's the important part,

working with others to defend Taiwan in the event of

catastrophe. Here Lance explains. Much more of this later.

Cabinets back when the LDP last lost its majority in both houses and they were able to

establish a government.

Coming out of that, the United States under first Barack Obama mentioned its pivot to

Asia.

And is a response of that over a couple of years.

That was around 2013, around 2015, or in 2015, rather, the second

Abe administration first passed a cabinet interpretation of the Constitution that said

Japan could, in fact, engage in collective defense.

Think of that.

Collective defense, meaning engaging an outside

partner, another country for the national security purposes of Japan to fight if necessary

in cooperation with another country. And that is one of the issues with the Constitution that was promulgated during the occupation under MacArthur.

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