Military history of Japan maintains a powerful defense force today, its Constitution, originally drawn under the guidelines of General Douglas MacArthur in 1945, formally renounces war and the use of military force in aggressive ways. Japan also maintains a policy against the exporting of military hardware. In September 2015, the Liberal Democratic Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, reinterpreted the Constitution, allowing Japan to use military force in assistance of its allies. The legality of these changes has been questioned by many academics and citizens. From 1867, Japan requested various Western military missions in order to help Japan to modernize its
Shinzō Abe Communist and Social Democratic parties walked out of the vote in protest at what they said was the government's move to force the bills through without sufficient debate and ignore "responsible opposition parties". Abe countered by arguing that the bills had been debated for "as many as 113 hours" before the vote. While common practice in many other parliamentary democracies, a government using its majority to "railroad" controversial bills though the Diet in the face of political and public opposition is a subject of criticism in Japan. As a result of these moves, Abe faced a public backlash, and opinion