Debate swirls in Japan over Shinzo Abe's military expansion push
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to revise Japan's pacifist constitution opposed by liberals who want to avoid military conflict
Japan marked the 67th anniversary of its postwar constitution Saturday with growing debate over whether to revise the war-renouncing charter in line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push for an expanded role for the military.
The ruling conservative party has long advocated revision but been unable to sway public opinion. Now Abe is proposing that the government reinterpret the constitution to give the military more prominence without having to win public approval for the revisions.
His push, backed by the US which wants Japan to bear a greater burden of its own defence, has upset the liberals who see it as undermining the constitution and democratic processes.
Hundreds of people gathered at a Tokyo rally commemorating Constitution Day, a national holiday.
“We citizens must stand up, take action and raise our voice to stop Abe, or this country could return to a Japan that wages war with Asia as it has done before,” said protest organiser Ken Takada said.
Written under US direction after World War II, the 1947 constitution says the Japanese people “forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation,” and that “land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.”