Does the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz constitute a "life-and-death crisis" for Japan?

It is reported that Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz. The strait is also a vital gateway for energy imports for Japan. In the past, the Japanese government considered “blockading the strait with mines” as an example of a “situation of an existential crisis” in which the right of collective self-defense could be exercised. However, this time it will carefully assess the situation.

At a press conference on March 2, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said, “At this stage, we have not yet determined that this constitutes a major-impact situation and an existential crisis situation under laws related to security and defense.”

“Existential crisis situation” is a concept defined in security-related legislation passed in 2015 during the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

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The Nikkei Business Publications and the Financial Times merged in November 2015 into the same media group. An alliance formed by two newspaper companies—Japan and the United Kingdom—that were also founded in the 19th century is advancing cooperation across a wide range of areas such as joint special features under the banner of “high-quality, the strongest economic journalism.” This time, as one part of that, the two newspapers have enabled article exchanges between their Chinese-language websites.