typically the pattern in bureaucratic Japan is that if a question of this sensitivity is broached in the public it means that the decision has already been privately made, most likely quite some time ago.
actually my opinion is that this decision is long overdue.
gaijin, “long overdue”
This very ominous bit involves a sea change (no pun intended), stirring the pot of emerging belligerent China and long recalcitrant Taiwan, Vietnam (north & south), South Korea and soon the Indo-Flip. The sick feeble Russian Bear is next. Shifting sands in Kasak Stan, stench in Chechnya, munching on dry rot in Crimea, and awakening a gentle giant, Ukraine.
You Jus gota love it, Rab sure does.