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Japan's evolving national security ambitions

After Japan's defeat in the Second World War, the United States promised to protect its former adversary in exchange for
Japan providing military bases for US forces in the region. But now, with China flexing its muscles in Japan's neighbourhood, and with North Korea, long an irritant, now looking positively dangerous, Japan is re-assessing its national security strategy. The writer on Asian affairs, Richard McGregor, says Japan is changing its national security calculations, rethinking Japan's traditional dependence on the US military.

(Photo by KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

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41 seconds