Revolutionary changes are about to beef up the military’s role within Japan’s national government.

Despite being one of the largest and most sophisticated militaries in the world, the Japanese military is saddled with pacifist restrictions, operating under a constitution that confines it to acting primarily as a defensive organ of the Japanese government.

Ever since its creation in the wake of World War ii, the Japanese Constitution has relegated Japan’s Defense Agency to being a low-profile department with little influence in the Japanese government. Two bills, both of which are expected to be approved soon, will expand the role of the military within the Japanese government.

First, after more than 50 years of operating as a second-tier agency buried behind other influential government ministries, Japan’s Defense Agency will be upgraded in status to become the Defense Ministry. Asia Times reported on the significance of this change on December 1 (emphasis ours throughout):

If the bill to revise the Defense Agency Establishment Law is enacted soon, as widely expected, the agency will officially become the Defense Ministry in January, and the director general of the agency will become the defense minister. It will be the first time the name of the agency has been changed in its 53-year history.At present, the Defense Agency is under the direct control of the prime minister as an affiliate of the Cabinet Office. One of the state ministers at the Cabinet Office heads the agency as its director general.Unlike ministries, the current agency cannot call snap cabinet meetings to make big decisions, nor can it submit bills to the Diet on its own. Instead, the agency has to go through the Cabinet Office. The agency also has to make budget requests in the name of the Cabinet Office rather than the agency chief. The change in status to a ministry will enable the defense entity to follow administrative procedures more smoothly.

Beyond being a sign of the growing importance the government is placing on its military, the decision to give the Defense Agency a more prominent voice in Japanese politics shows the government’s growing consideration of factoring military matters into its foreign policy decision-making. With North Korea groaning away to its west, China beefing up its military establishment and American influence declining in Asia, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to ensure that every major foreign-policy decision contains a strategic and military flavor.

Streamlining and empowering the Japanese military is essential to meeting this goal. In addition to upgrading the Defense Agency to a ministry, the new defense bill will further streamline the Japanese military by scrapping the Defense Facilities Administration Agency, an affiliate agency to the Defense Agency, and integrating its functions into the newly formed Defense Ministry.

The second bill that will likely be approved this month will approve the expansion of the primary duties of Japan’s Self Defense Forces (sdf), which were established at the same time as the Defense Agency in 1954. Presently, the primary duties of the sdf are confined to national defense and disaster relief at home. Overseas operations, classified as “supplementary duties,” are not considered a primary duty of the Japanese military and must undergo an elaborate approval process. Asia Times discussed the bill to revise and expand the primary duties of the sdf.

The focus of public attention has been on the bill to revise the Defense Agency Establishment Law to upgrade the agency to a ministry. But the bill to revise the sdf Law to expand the sdf’s “primary duties” may have much more far-reaching effects.The revision of the sdf Law will put such activities as international emergency assistance missions, participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations and support for the U.S. military during emergencies near Japan on par with national-defense and disaster-relief operations at home.

The decision by the newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Abe to upgrade the status of the military within the government and to expand the primary functions of Japan’s Self Defense Forces is symbolic of the growing importance that the Japanese government (with the support of the people) is placing on national security, as well as Japan’s role in Asia and the world.