GOTEMBA (Japan) — The Japanese soldiers jumped out of the jeeps, unloaded the anti-tank missiles and dropped to the ground. Within minutes, they aimed and fired, striking hypothetical targets nearly half a kilometre away.
The audience of more than 26,000, crammed into stands and picnicking on camouflage-patterned mats on the ground, clapped appreciatively, murmuring “Sugoi!” — or “Wow!” — during live-fire drills conducted over the weekend by Japan’s military here in the foothills of Mount Fuji.
Pacifism has been a sacred tenet of Japan’s national identity since the end of World War II, when the United States pushed to insert a clause renouncing war into the country’s postwar Constitution. But there are signs that the public’s devotion to pacifism — and its attitude toward the Japanese military, known as the Self-Defence Forces — have begun to change, in part at the urging of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Mr Abe’s slow, steady efforts to remove pacifist constraints on the military may have received help on Tuesday, when North Korea fired a ballistic missile that sailed over Hokkaido. This prompted the government to issue television and moblie phone alerts warning residents in its path to take cover. It was the first time North Korea had flown a missile over Japanese territory without the pretext of launching a satellite. The missile landed harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean, but Mr Abe called it an “unprecedented, grave and serious threat.”
“We have been living in peace for such a long time that we believe this peace is going to last forever,” said Mr Ichiro Miyazoe, 74, walking in the Ikebukuro neighbourhood of Tokyo after the latest test from Pyongyang on Tuesday. “Japan has had a weak attitude, like a losing dog. We must have a stronger military.”
Although the Japanese public has long been ambivalent about Mr Abe’s agenda — polls show that about half or more disagree with his efforts to revise the pacifist clause of the Constitution — its fascination with the military has been growing.
Applications for tickets to attend the Fuji drills were oversubscribed by a factor of nearly six to one this year. According to polls by the prime minister’s Cabinet Office, the number of those who say they are interested in the Self-Defence Forces has risen to 71 per cent in 2015, up from about 55 per cent in the late 1980s.
Manga comics and anime television shows like Gate, which feature the Self-Defence Forces fighting supernatural creatures, have grown popular, while online matchmaking sites offering dates with soldiers have become trendy.
Of course, such activities do not necessarily translate into a desire for a more assertive national defence policy. The most important function of the Self-Defence Forces is disaster relief, and support for the forces soared in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, when troops rescued victims and restored disaster-ravaged zones. But at events like the Fuji live-fire drills, some members of the public are starting to consider the possibility that their military could be called upon to perform more than live exercises or disaster relief.
“Once the US or South Korea engages in a war, Japan will also have to take part,” said Mr Masaaki Ishihara, 60, a manager at a construction company in Yokohama who attended the Sunday drills. “Japan will be forced to get involved.”
Despite a festival-like atmosphere, with people eating flavoured shaved ice and buying T-shirts, model tanks and military-themed cookies, Mr Ishihara’s wife, Takako, 49, said the exercises felt “like a real battle”.
“I got scared watching it,” she said. “Will peace really continue?”
With the rising threats in the region, Mr Abe has repeatedly called for a constitutional revision to allow Japan to expand its military capabilities. Japan is protected by its alliance with the US, but Mr Abe and his supporters believe the country needs to do more on its own.
Two years ago, the premier pushed through security laws that permit Japan’s troops to participate in overseas combat missions. The Japanese government has also proposed defence spending increases for six years running, and the Defence Ministry recently announced that it would request funds to purchase a US missile defence system, known as Aegis Ashore, that can intercept missiles mid-flight above the Earth’s atmosphere.
As it has grown anxious about the threats, the Japanese public, as citizens of the only country to have experienced the horrors of nuclear war, has remained steadfastly committed to its war-renouncing charter. Before the security laws were passed in 2015, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tokyo to oppose them.
Protesters also regularly show up at US bases in Okinawa to object to American military presence. There are about 54,000 US troops in Japan.
Analysts said the public has yet to reckon with just how far they are willing to go in the name of national security. “Ordinary people tacitly want to avoid thinking about a potential contradiction between the notion of the pacifist clause of the Constitution and the reality of changes in Japanese defence policies,” said Mr Jiro Yamaguchi, a professor of political science at Hosei University.
Ms Shinobu Mori, 52, who drove almost 200km with her daughter to attend the annual rite of military Kabuki theatre near Mount Fuji, said she hoped the firepower would never actually be used. “I grew up in a peaceful era,” she said. “So I would like to pass that on to the next generation.”
Some analysts say Japan’s notion of pacifism has always contained contradictions. “It is faux pacifism, and it always has been,” said Mr Grant Newsham, a retired US Marine colonel and a research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies. “It is predicated on the perspective that Japan faces no threats.” THE NEW YORK TIMES