For the economy he has arrows, for foreign policy he wants missiles, and for the Constitution, well, has just driven a tank over it. Either that or Shinzo Abe has a way with words that suggests imaginative writing rather than politics should be his calling.

Policies are often presented in poetry, and government is normally conducted in the less-idealistic manner of prose. But Abe's skills at reinterpretation require a linguistic flexibility that normally falls under the category of fiction.

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is written in a language that is crisp and clear and seems, at first glance, not to require any reinterpretation as the official English translation of the article shows.