In the story “Japan reconciles with its military” the author reports, that the severe natural disasters and dubious neighbors like an aggressive China and the unpredictable dictatorship in North Korea accelerate the development of an increasing respect for the self defence forces in the Japanese public.
The German editor interviewed many important persons like the former ambassador in Germany, Mr. Takahiro Shinyo, and the former minister of defence, Mr. Satoshi Morimoto, and visited the National Defence Academy in Yokosuka and the large, brandnew escort ship “Izumo”.
For him, the “Izumo”, the largest Japanese warship since the Second World War, is an intelligent combination of a helicopter carrier, a floating command center, a tanker, a replenishment ship, a huge landing craft and a hospital.
But from the Japanese perspective, a more cautious wording is a must, based on the history and the lost war in 1945: The 2nd paragraph of article 9 of the Constitution prohibits Japan the establishment of military forces until today.
The author believes, that the new security rules of the Abe-cabinet allow the forces a better cooperation with the allies, especially the US.
More and more people in Japan understand this new way protecting peace, stability and souvernity in the region.
He detected a lot of parallels between German and Japanese security policy since World War Two.

Short summary of the articles of Mr. Helmut Michelis, who visited Japan in October 2015 reporting for the „Rheinische Post“, one of the leading regional daily newspapers and internet-media in Germany. Michelis spoke with politicians, military authorities, experts like scientists, which are developing renewable energy, peach farmers, fishermen and other citizens. The editor published his reports about his experiences made in various towns and institutions allover Japan in the newspapers of his company like NGZ (Neuss-Grevenbroicher Zeitung) and its internet-disclosures like “RP Online” and “RP plus” (for iPad-readers especially).