On January 19, Prime Minister Abe stressed the need to amend the constitution to enable Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense, saying "Japan cannot be locked inside a box created forty or fifty years ago." And he expressed his will to alter the interpretation of the constitution in this regard sooner or later.

The right to collective self-defense, advocated by Japan, means that Japan can use armed strength to defend an ally under attack, even if Japan itself has not been directly hit.

In fact, Japan is not allowed to exercise the right to collective self-defense under the international order and its constitution established after the Second World War. So, it is Japan's intention to remove such restrictions so as to enable it to take part in a war and launch reinvasion.

Abe had already declared the start of reinvasion through his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, symbolic of the Japanese militarism, on December 26 last year, one year after taking office.

His recent remarks are another blatant challenge to the Asian nations and other peoples of the world aspiring after peace.

Some time ago, the foreign minister of Japan defended Abe's visit to the shrine, saying that it was aimed to make a "pledge not to provoke a war" and that the true motive would be explained to the United States.

Japan has worked out new "defense programme guidelines", "mid-term defense capability buildup outline" and "national security strategy" to push forward the scheme for turning itself into a military giant and launching reinvasion.

In August last year the chief executive of Japan replaced the director of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau with a person persisting in the right to collective self-defense, despite the strong opposition from domestic political camps, in a bid to alter the constitutional interpretation. In this regard, an opposition figure contended that the Abe cabinet's real intention is to allow Japan to join the United States in a war overseas without any restriction.

It is quite natural that the peace-loving forces in Asia and the rest of the world have stood against Japan's conversion into a war state, with deep apprehensions. The world does not want Japan to emerge a war state because it turned Asia into a sea of blood in the past.

The reactionaries of Japan should never forget the past history of its defeat in the war of aggression.

All the developments taking place in Japan show that Abe vowed to the war criminals at the Yasukuni Shine to fight a war even by revising the constitution.

Only the final destruction is in store for Japan, if it goes along the road of emerging a war state.