Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party's coalition Komeito ally on Friday expressed reticence to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent push to amend the nation's pacifist constitution to be ratified by 2020.
Yoshihisa Inoue, Komeito's Secretary General, told a press conference on the matter that there are no immediate security-related reasons why a key pacifist clause in the constitution should be revised.
"We're not in a situation in which we will face immediate problems in our security due to the lack of reference to the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in Article 9 of the Constitution," Inoue said, adding that a time frame on revising the constitution should not be set.
Abe in a video message last week said he wanted to revise Japan's supreme charter to specifically mention the Self-Defense Forces in Article 9 and for this to be enforced form 2020.
The move sparked widespread controversy, with both ruling and opposition party members, civilians here and the international community voicing concern that any revision to Article 9 could lessen constraints on the SDF and see their use of force legitimized in overseas missions for the first time since World War II.
Abe said he partly intended the proposal to trigger debate on the controversial topic in parliament which has made little progress and seen a meeting of the Constitution Commission of the House of Representatives postponed due to the ongoing contention.
But the prime minister's suggestions that he wants to legally clarify the existence of the SDF without changing the pacifist nature of the constitution has been called into question by civic groups and constitutional scholars, as well as party members, who have voiced concern that the prime minister is attempting to "steamroll" the issue.
Article 9 of Japan's pacifist Constitution states that "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."
It goes on to state that... "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."
To date since it being sanctioned at the end of WWII, the pacifist charter has been interpreted by the government as not prohibiting Japan from maintaining forces of strictly a defensive nature. But further interpretations during Abe's tenure have led to new, controversial security legislation which allows for an expanded operational scope of the SDF.
Increased defense spending of late and the deployment of Japanese military hardware for joint drills outside of Japan's territory has caused great consternation to the people of Japan who for seven decades have enjoyed peace ensured by the pacifist charter.
Any amendments or revisions to the pacifist constitution could lead Japan into war, scholars have attested, and along with the majority of the public, have called for the charter and its current pacifist clauses to be upheld and the SDF to have their activities restricted as per the war-renouncing constitution.
