He was considered a hard-liner with respect to Japan’s military policies. In 2007, he was the initiator of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) during his first tenure as prime minister, aimed at resisting China’s rise as an economic and military superpower. He advocated reforming the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) by revising Article 9 of the pacifist Japanese constitution that outlawed the country from declaring war or acquiring ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
