Enthusiasm for rewriting constitution fades

Enthusiasm is fading in Japan for rewriting the post-World War II pacifist constitution, with more people opposing the idea than supporting it for the first time in 15 years, a poll showed Tuesday. Revising the constitution has been a signature cause for conservatives and was the key policy goal of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who quit last year.

A poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said that 43.1% of Japanese supported keeping the 1947 constitution as is, against 42.5% who back revisions. An overwhelming 82% of Japanese support keeping the emblematic clause in the constitution's Article Nine that says the country forever renounces the right to use or even to threaten to use force, the poll said.

The Yomiuri, which has taken surveys on the issue since 1981, said it was the first time since 1993 that a plurality of Japanese supported the pacifist constitution.

In 2004, as many as 65% said the constitution needed to be revised.

That was the year that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sent troops to Iraq on a landmark mission, Japan's first military deployment since 1945 to a country where fighting was under way.

The Yomiuri, which polled 1,786 people, said that Abe's defeat may have been a factor in changing public opinion. Abe quit after a stinging election rebuke and a series of scandals.

His successor, Yasuo Fukuda, has made it clear that rewriting the constitution is not one of his priorities.

While Japan is constitutionally barred from maintaining armed forces, it still has one of the world's top-funded militaries, known as the Self-Defense Forces.

© AFP