Japan PM calls for revising pacifist constitution

Tokyo, May 3: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for revising the pacifist constitution, saying that the charter imposed six decades ago by US Occupation forces had become outdated in the current geopolitical environment.

In a statement marking Constitution Day today, Abe, who has made constitutional revision a major objective, said he hoped for active debate among the Japanese public on the future of the charter which came into effect 60 years ago.

''The diplomatic and national security framework with the constitution as its pinnacle, cannot keep up with the great changes and is in need of revising,'' Abe said in the statement, the first of its kind on Constitution Day in 10 years by a prime minister.

''Deepening debate over the constitution, going back to its roots in the postwar regime, will lead to a spirit of opening up a new world.'' Abe, 52 and Japan's first prime minister born after World War Two, has vowed to shed a US-imposed ''postwar regime'' and revising the constitution is at its core along with educational reform aimed at putting pride and discipline back in classrooms.

He has also stressed the need to clarify the status of the country's armed forces, made ambiguous by the constitution's war-renouncing Article 9, so that they can play a greater role in global security.

Japan abandoned the right to wage war or maintain a military under Article 9, but the article has been interpreted to allow forces for self-defence and in recent years, its limits have been stretched to permit overseas military activities, including the deployment of troops to Iraq on a non-combat mission.

Abe has said his views have been reflected in a 2005 draft for a new charter released by his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that would recognise Japan's right to maintain a military.

His government has already taken steps toward changing the charter, aiming to enact later this month a law laying out procedures for a national referendum needed for constitutional revision. The bill passed the lower house last month.

But hurdles to revise the constitution remain high and when it comes to changing the pacifist Article 9, an opinion poll shows Japanese voters who oppose it outnumber those who favour it.

Even before the national referendum, changes to the constitution need to be approved by two-thirds of the members of each house of parliament, which would mean that Abe's LDP and its junior coalition partner would need backing from members of the opposition.

While 58 per cent of voters in a survey by the liberal Asahi newspaper published yesterday favoured some revisions to the constitution, against 27 per cent who saw no need, when asked about Article 9, 49 per cent opposed changing it, compared with 33 per cent who favoured a revision.

Reuters
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