Japan's Defense Guidelines

domestic mixed feelings and foreign opposition, the bill is likely to pass, since the majority coalition has the votes to pass it. The LDP might have to compromise a little, and is likely to submit to the demand for prior parliamentary approval in return for the Democratic and Komei parties approval of the bill as a whole. The Socialist and Communist parties oppose the bill wholesale, which is as unsurprising as it is irrelevant.

There are other aspects of the bill, including an agreement to take part in the US plan to build and deploy a ballistic missile defense system, and a decision to "take part aggressively" (whatever that means) in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. These terms will no doubt cause politicians and pundits alike a great deal of hand-wringing. But despite its necessary vagueness on some issues, and its political over-optimism on others, the bill is likely to strengthen ties between the world's two largest economies. That may be its least contentious, and most important, advantage.

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