1st Ld: U.S., Japan unveil new defense guidelines

U.S. and Japan announced on Monday new guidelines for bilateral defense cooperation, allowing Japan's self defense forces to take on more ambitious global role that the Shinzo Abe administration has been seeking.

Under the new guidelines, revised for the first time since 1997, Japan will have the rights to exercise collective self-defense, therefore being able to defend other countries that may come under attack, said the U.S. Defense Department in a news release. It also allows for increased regional and global cooperation in the U. S.-Japanese alliance.

A joint statement of the New Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation was released after the U.S. and Japanese foreign and defense ministers met in New York City Monday morning.

U.S. welcomes and supports the ongoing efforts to develop the legislation, which is to reflect Japan's policy of "Proactive Contributions to Peace" and its July 2014 cabinet decision, the statement said.

The Abe administration, through reinterpreting the constitution last year, gave green light to the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to exercise the collective defense, which allows for Japan's involvement in the defense of its allies. Previously, Japan's war- renouncing constitution allows SDF to use force only if Japan itself was directly threatened. The move faced harsh criticism both from home and abroad.

The statement said that U.S. 2015 National Security Strategy articulates that as the United States is actively implementing its rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region, it's central for the U.S. to be committed to the defense of Japan.

The meeting came on the first day of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's week-long visit to the United States. Abe is expected to meet U.S. President Barack Obama, and deliver a speech at the joint session of the U.S. Congress.

The prime minister's trip to Washington comes amid growing demand for Japan to apologized for its past war crimes

On Monday, dozens of protesters shouted "Abe must apologize!" as Abe delivered a speech at the Harvard University.

In a recent editorial, the New York Times also advised that Japan cannot "credibly fill that broader role" of a 21st-century leader, as envisioned by Abe, "if it seeks to repudiate criticism of its past."

The newspaper also linked the success of Abe's visit partly to his efforts to "confront Japan's wartime history, including its decision to wage war, its brutal occupation of China and Korea, its atrocities and its enslavement of thousands of women forced to work as sex slaves or comfort women in wartime brothels." Endite