Iran didn't get the memo that Japan is nationalistic and actively building their military again, it's all fun and games until an actual fully armed Gundum shows up to your country and begins wrecking your military.
The Liberian-flagged, Netherlands-operated chemical tanker
Sounds like a cascade of loopholes to avoid safety regulations and get away with slave wages. I’m sure if Japanese companies sailed their ships under their own country’s flag they would get accidentally attacked 100% less.
The article is scant on details so I'm curious if it was "from [a place in] Iran" or if it was "from [the revolutionary guard of] Iran" - is it something the Iranian government openly admits or is denying... and if they're denying it, do we (I.e. CSIS, MI6) believe it was sponsored by the government or some crackpot.
It's unconstitutional for Japan's military to be anything other than a defensive organization.
Now, in practice, they have all sorts of creative ways to get around that, one of which is linguistic tricks and "technically it's not an aircraft carrier, it's a...".
I know they were pushing through constitutional changes, or at least proposing them in the last few years, but I'm not sure if that's been approved yet, or not. A simple Google search could yield an answer, but I'm too lazy at the moment.