Japan moved a step closer to exercising a military option against China by endorsing what it calls the doctrine of "collective self-defense."

At the behest of hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan's ruling coalition approved a reinterpretation of the Japanese Constitution that will allow Japan's armed forces to defend other nations as part of "collective self-defense."

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"What we are trying to do now is to play a more proactive role in cooperating with regional countries in setting up a framework to protect the peace and stability of the region," said Takeshi Iwaya, a politician of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party  to which Abe belongs and who chairs a research commission on security.

In the current maritime crisis in the East and South China Sea involving a belligerent China, Japan's de facto Asian allies are the Philippines and Vietnam.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino has been supportive of unshackling Japan's military to defend its allies. Last week, Aquino said Japan should be allowed to come to the military aid of other nations in distress, especially those targeted by China and its unreasonable territorial claims.

 "We believe that nations of goodwill can benefit only if the Japanese government is empowered to assist others and is allowed to come to the aid of those in need, especially in the area of collective self-defense," Aquino said.

"We therefore do not view with alarm any proposal to revisit the Japanese constitution if the Japanese people so desire, especially if this enhances Japan's ability to address its international obligations and brings us closer to ... our shared goals of peace, stability and mutual prosperity."

The U.S. also supports the move and has been pushing it for years. The change will allow the Japanese navy to protect U.S. warships from an attack by China.

Abe's supporters said the government does not intend to change the Japanese Constitution. The reinterpretation, however, will allow Abe's and subsequent governments to authorize the use military force overseas.

Abe and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party took pains to state that Japan will not abandon its pacifist pledge. The agreement with junior coalition partner New Komeito, which was founded by members of the Nichiren Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, includes restrictions on when Japan can exercise collective self-defense.

Abe has campaigned hard for collective self-defense, citing a relentless rise in foreign threats, notably China's continuing reliance on the threat of military force to attain its maritime aims and North Korea's missile and nuclear arsenals.

Written under U.S. direction after World War II, Japan's 1947 constitution says the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation." The clause was designed to prevent a repeat of Japan's brutal wars that ravaged most of Asia from 1937 to 1945.

Opponents claim the new policy will open the door for Japan's eventual participation in joint overseas military actions.

Japan has maintained a "Self-Defense Force" since 1954 to defend itself.

Currently, Japan and China are locked in a bitter territorial dispute over the Senkaku islands, which China claims as its own.

Japan and the U.S. are allied with the Philippines in opposing China's "nine-dash line" claim to own the South China Sea.