Japan would like to develop offensive military capability.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013 07:12 PM

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said here Tuesday that Japan needs to study the possibility to develop offensive military capacity so as to attack enemy bases, according to local media. Abe made the remarks when he responded to proposals, which aimed at strengthening the country's military capabilities, submitted by lawmakers from his Liberal Democratic Party, reported Japan's Kyodo News.




Abe said the matter is an important one and indicated that it would be in the discussion of compiling a governmental long-term defense program that to be outlined by the end of this year.

The proposals referred to promote Japan's capability to defend its islands, touching on the necessity to equip the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) with U.S. MV-22 Osprey transport aircrafts to create amphibious forces, said Kyodo.

The proposals also called for approving Japan to exercise collective self-defense right, the report said.

Abe, a well-known hawkish politician that returned to power last December, is eager to revise the country's war-renouncing constitution so as to make the SDF a full national army, raising concerns and worries from neighboring countries.