Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, suffered an embarrassing and unexpected setback on June 4th in his efforts to loosen the chains of his country's pacifist constitution. Yasuo Hasebe, a legal expert chosen by Mr Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), stunned his sponsors by declaring that the government's proposed new laws to allow "collective self-defence" violate the constitution. The move comes not long after Mr Abe received the warmest of welcomes in America in April, not least because of those very plans for collective self-defence. If passed, they would allow the country's army, known as the Self-Defence Force, to aid America's armed forces even if Japan itself is not directly under attack.
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