TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for revising the pacifist constitution on Thursday, the 60th anniversary of its coming into force, as debate over whether to change the charter gained momentum.
In a statement marking Constitution Day, Abe said the charter imposed by U.S. Occupation forces in 1947 had become outdated in the current geopolitical environment and urged the Japanese public to debate its future.
"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 by a prime minister in 10 years on Constitution Day.
"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 U.S.-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 the article, but it 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.
Majority oppose pacifist change
Opponents of constitutional revision argue that such changes would lead Japan into war.
"This year's Constitution Day comes amid unprecedented crisis," Mizuho Fukushima, head of the tiny opposition Social Democratic Party, told a Tokyo rally, referring to Abe's drive to change the constitution.
"Japan has not killed anyone since World War Two. That is the greatest achievement of the constitution," she told hundreds of people who gathered at a Tokyo park.
Abe's government has already taken steps toward changing the charter, aiming to enact later this month a law laying out procedures for a 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, opinion polls show Japanese voters who oppose it outnumber those who favour it.
"When the war ended when I was a child, the country was in ashes and there was no food. So when the constitution was drawn up, I thought: 'There's nothing more wonderful than this.'," said Ikuko Otabe, a 74-year-old pensioner taking part in the rally.
"So I can't understand the moves to revise it," she added.
Even before a 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 percent of voters in a survey by the liberal Asahi newspaper published on Wednesday favoured some revisions to the constitution, against 27 percent who saw no need, when asked about Article 9, 49 percent opposed changing it, compared with 33 percent who favoured a revision.
A poll by public broadcaster NHK conducted last month also showed that 44 percent of respondents were against altering Article 9, while those who support it amounted to 25 percent.
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