The Japanese contribution to a Taiwan contingency was, until recently, an open question. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution prohibits the maintenance of war potential. The interpretation was strict for most of the postwar period and has loosened steadily since the early 2000s. The pace of loosening has accelerated in the last five years to a point where the formal constitutional position and the operational reality have diverged considerably. This is the most important development in the Western Pacific that does not get the attention it deserves.