[Cowperson]

Japan is abandoning its pacifist past for a hard-headed, proactive security policy which will see it more willing to deploy troops, but complicate northeast Asian security, according to a new study titled "Unsheathing the Samurai Sword".

"This shift is evolutionary, not revolutionary, but it is gaining momentum and represents a defining watershed in Japan's post war security policy," analyst Alan Dupont said in his report for the Sydney-based Lowy Institute for International Policy.

How does a newly assertive Japan fit into the world?

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/...reut/index.html

Cowperson