In December 2023, I was in Nha Trang, Vietnam, for a meeting with a group of Asian lawyers to discuss the 2024 Conference of COLAP in Japan (COLAP- Confederation of Lawyers of Asia and the Pacific).
Asia is currently experiencing an unprecedented crisis of peace; until about 10 years ago, the mainstream movement was to protect Article 9 of the Constitution, but the current Japanese government continues to deploy missiles and increase the defense budget without regard to Article 9 of the Constitution. There is no way that this could not provoke China and North Korea. Although Japan talks about the threat of China and North Korea, the recent launch of a North Korean reconnaissance satellite set off emergency alarms in Japan, as if a missile was about to attack Japan. Such themes will be a major topic at next year's conference in Japan.