The question for Prime Minister Abe is he willing to spend $200 million dollars to save two lives at the cost of losing face and his credibility as a hawk. The answer for the moment appears to be, no.
While on the surface Abe appears to be distressed about the situation, the acts of terrorism by ISIS towards Japan may give impetus to him and the ruling coalition to reinterpret the constitution to allow Japan to join its allies in overseas wars
Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, drafted by American officials during the occupation following World War II, renounces war as a sovereign right of the Japanese nation and forbids the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes. Japan has maintained a “defense-only ” policy for decades. However, the Abe cabinet using the term “collective self-defense” issued a decision last year officially reinterpreting the constitution to allow Japan to participate in war if Japan’s allies are attacked, among other conditions.
In his press conference on the hostage crisis Abe was sure to say, “There are three conditions for exercising self defense. In any event, Japan needs to get its security laws in order to ensure smooth and unpunctuated counter measures,” making another appeal to scrap Japan’s pacifist constitution and create a standing Army.
In an interview with Foreign Affairs in 2013, Abe was very blunt about his desire to get rid of Japan’s pacifist constitution and concluded his interview by arguing that the Japanese public would support changing the constitution if they just had a convincing reason.
“Only 30 percent of the people support enabling the right to use force for collective self-defense,” he said. “But when we present a specific case involving, for instance, a missile launch by North Korea, and we explain to the public that Japan could shoot down missiles targeting Japan, but not missiles targeting the U.S. island of Guam, even though Japan has the ability to do so, then more than 60 percent of the public acknowledges that this is not right.”
The gruesome death of two Japanese nationals because Japan won’t pay ransom money may cause a dip Abe’s popularity but bolster his agenda to re-militarize the nation.
so japan is going to cough up $200 million for two not really important people. Have worked with the Japanese, nice people but do not piss them off, consequences are high.