FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2007 file photo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, right, reviews an honor guard in a ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo on the day Japan's conservative government upgraded the Defense Agency to a full ministry for the first time since World War II, in line with Abe's push to give the military a greater profile. Japan's military is kept on a very short leash under a war-renouncing constitution written by U.S. officials whose main concern was keeping Japan from rearming soon after World War II. But if Japan's soon-to-be prime minister Abe, who set to take office for a second time after leading his Liberal Democratic Party to victory in elections last Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, has his way, the status quo may be in for some change. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara, File)
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