Supporters, opponents hold rallies over constitutional amendment

Protect the first paragraph of Article 9 that denounces the use of war. Amend the second paragraph to remove the contradiction of the currently existing JSDF. Show some respect to the men and women who put their lives on the line serving the people, defending the country and assisting in disasters. Remove the contradiction so that countless hours of taxpayer time isn't wasted perpetually arguing about the "constitutionality" of everything and anything pertaining to the SDF, and argue more pertinent issues.

The need for Japan to re-examine it's constitutional constraints was brought about by China much earlier, not North Korea.

http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2014/07/27/china-responds-to-japans-constitutional-reinterpretation/

Abe lost a good chance. The argument of changing our peace constitution heated up when our neighbors got aggressive to Japan. Now their attitudes softened and people's concerns subsided. We felt we were stupid only Japan sticking to the peace constitution while our neighbors freely provoked us. We learned unless all have the same peace constitutions, it does not work.

Article 9 is already being completely ignored. And the idea that a nation can renounce war is ridiculous. You can renounce an attack on your country. There is already a standing army and navy. Repeal article 9 completely and be done with it.

Opponents of reform are not thinking rationally. They seem not to realize that the Japan of today is incredibly dangerous, most dangerous since WW2.Japan needs a modern Constitution AND a modern Military, able to fight overseas with USA to secure Japanese interests.

As a real example, US forces in Afghanistan were in need of more backup, no other Nations were helping much,Japanese troops could have been deployed,relieving US forces and preventing loss of lives. Also,Japanese Navy can help US Navy in patrolling East China Sea,and come to their rescue when US comes under attack.

Stay on the course, Prime Minister. Dont even listen to the naysayers.Momentum is on your side.

Children get bullied all the time. Adults too get bullied. They all say, "I don't want to fight you" please leave me alone. This tells the bully they can continue and will not get hurt themselves as their target has renounced violence and will not fight back. Only when you stand up to bullies and show them they will get hurt too if they fight you, do they reconsider. I was faced with this when younger and only when I actually fought back did the bullying end. Japan can tell other nations, I don't want to fight you, but that will not stop the bully.

Stand up and show you are prepared to fight if you must. That you can hurt them if they try to hurt you.

Be friendly but do not make yourself an easy target or someone will take advantage of that.

Amend your constitution to be equal with all other Sovereign Nations. War is a last resort but every country has that right except Japan. That does not seem fair or right.

@Akie

Sorry but NO country has "the right" to stop Japan from having or building a Military.

The law of which you speak is internal to Japan and can be altered at ANY TIME with the blessing of the Japanese people should they wish it.

Abe has the right to attempt to have the constitution changed or modified as the leader of Japan, if he believes it is in Japans best interest to do so. He clearly believes it is. I agree with him and many others do also.

The law of which you speak is internal to Japan and can be altered at ANY TIME with the blessing of the Japanese people should they wish it.

They don’t wish it

Glad to hear momentum is building on this change, and well done to China and North Korea for helping to accelerate this momentum! Never again will Japan be threatened

Darmstadt: "and well done to China and North Korea for helping to accelerate this momentum!"

North Korea is making peace with South Korea, no thanks at all to Japan, and has proven Japan doesn't need to change the Constitution for there to be peace in the region. So, so much for that argument. That's one reason Abe is seeking to ram this through and down the throats of the Japanese before he'S booted out for scandals and since he can no longer use NK or China as threats and justifications. Well done to those nations, indeed. Shame on Abe and the wingers, though, for urinating on the majority for your own desires.

In Japan most people have this warped desire for peace and a pacifist stance, while wanting the USA’s absolute and total defense of Japan, while also kinda wanting America out.

Mix that with a lot of apathy and zero history knowledge, and a victim mentality.

dcog9065Today  10:51 am JST

Japan should nuke up so that a huge standing armed forces won’t be required anymore.

This kind of deluded garbage is precisely why Japan has so many problems with its neighbours. Unfortunately some politicians buy into this nonsense too.

That will then ensure Japan’s security as any nation that attacks Japan will be made extinct.

As will Japan and most of the rest of Asia.

Peace constitution has its time and has been great, but today Japan must rethink, given the hostile surrounding it is in. NK, Russia, and most of all, China, a relatively new threat, are all within attack radius of medium range missiles. Few other countries face such concentrated existential threats.

The word 改正 is pretty sneaky. It implies that Abe's revisions are in fact "corrections" (正).

The law of which you speak is internal to Japan and can be altered at ANY TIME with the blessing of the Japanese people should they wish it.

They don't want it, they don't want the Nippon Kaigi, and they don't want a return of war.

Japan should nuke up so that a huge standing armed forces won’t be required anymore.

sf2kToday 12:31 pm JST

peter14

That's false equivalence. If Japan is attacked it can defend itself. I mean, it's easy to understand

If China lands on the Senkaku's and builds a military base, technically Japan can do nothing as it has not been attacked. You can defend yourself but you can only fight as long as your being attacked. If the other country, takes any of your islands then says, ok we have now stopped fighting. Japan must stop also as it cannot use war to settle issues with another country.

If another country gives Japan an ultimatum on anything and threatens to blow up Tokyo, Japan can not stop this from happening it must wait until attacked to take any direct action and can only defend itself.

Many scenario's can be discussed where Japan is at a major disadvantage to all other Sovereign Countries because of article 9 of the current constitution. If your ok with Japanese people potentially dying because you would rather not alter your constitution then that's a matter for the Japanese and I can only give my outside opinion which is meaningless to anyone but myself. I state it none the less. Fix your constitution now before a catastrophe happens.

sf2k

Since the current government has a defacto armed forces for protection it is reasonable to assume that protection of the islands would follow. Thus destroying your straw

Japan cant do anything if the other side does not fire first.

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.

Theft does not allow for Japan to fire first. Straw rebuilt.

Clearly. No one else would be in favour of war over decades of continued peace. They need new hobbies

It's called a straw man argument. You create the fiction then you tear it down.

It's manipulation

Given Article 9:

The official English translation[6] of the article is:

ARTICLE 9. (1) Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, 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.

(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, 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.

Since the current government has a defacto armed forces for protection it is reasonable to assume that protection of the islands would follow. Thus destroying your straw

Next....

and another shrubbery! I mean meeting

peter14

That's false equivalence. If Japan is attacked it can defend itself. I mean, it's easy to understand

China will not need to attack Japan to land on the Senkaku's and start building bases there.

Japan would be left to either do nothing, or breach its constitution and attack Chinese forces inhabiting the stolen Islands. Thus using force as a means of settling an international dispute in contravention to paragraph 1 of article 9 of the current constitution. Or relying on America to do battle to return the Islands to Japanese control for them.

Argue if you will but the Constitution is clear about that point. Cant use force to resolve an issue.

If Japan built its own structures on those Islands first, it would require China to attack to remove the Japanese presence and control. At that point Japan could defend its people there. Right now, that's not the case.

Alfie - great post.

60,000 protesters in Tokyo alone - and in this country where supposedly people don't openly express opinions.

1,000 people at Nippon Kaigi organized pro-military event.

61% of people surveyed are opposed to change - multiple polls over time achieve similar results.

There's a message somewhere in there, but it's too obvious to sway the Neo-Cons - those same NCs who actually use the moniker of "We love Japan" but in reality despise Japan.

Oh yes they love Japan - but it's the Japan created in their own narrow blinkered image. We others love the Real Japan - the Japan of the People - the majority who have been manipulated, lied to and discarded for decades by a myriad of LDP lords.

I will never understand those Japan haters.

To their everlasting wisdom, Japanese instinctively know not to trust Abe to tinker with their freedoms.

 a meeting in Tokyo of supporters of constitutional revision

Why on earth is this group NOT identified for what they are = nippon kaigi

I am very surprised, in a GOOD way, that so many people around Japan are out protesting abe's plans to return to the Japan of the 1930s!! Great stuff!

with the eventual ending of Abe's gov't, I hope Japan will also stop being an arms dealer that started on his watch. That's another thing that undermines Article 9 and wasn't an issue until Abe

Japan isn't threatened. It's ignored

It's all about the money. It's always about the money. Likely there is pressure from the US to make this revision. Change a few words in the constitution and instantly all the major US weapons manufacturers have a new customer.

Yoshiko Sakurai, a journalist and one of the organizers of the pro-amendment meeting in Tokyo

Also a sex-slave denying, Yasukuni-licking Nippon Kaigi stalwart so far to the right she's in danger of falling off the edge of the world.

According to the latest Kyodo News survey conducted last month, 61 percent of respondents opposed any constitutional revisions under Abe.

Interesting numbers considering that Kyodo is little more than a mouthpiece for the LDP. Even they can't put lipstick on a pig: people don't trust Abe.

US forces in Afghanistan were in need of more backup, no other Nations were helping much,Japanese troops could have been deployed

That's one of the reasons why people are against Abe's desire to rewrite Japan's peace constitution: why should Japan's military be sent off to die in the US's illegal wars for global hegemony and oil?

It gives me great joy to see them failing. Article 9 is a treasure. I wish more countries had it. I know it was imposed but it was imposed for a reason and the reason is a neat one. You can't attack but you can defend. Works for me.

I referendum is different than an election, as the UK found out. It's not about a party or an election, but nation. You don't mess with a nation.

Abe is probably gone in September or earlier. There's no one to lead them after. The whole thing is an exercise in futility

Japan has already military powers more than North Korea and South Korea combined. The last barrier for Japan to go a war with ease is the peace constitution. Northeast Asians have the right to stop Japan to become militarized again. The law must be respected by Abe and the status quo must not be changed.

Abe is trying to rush this, because if the threat posed by NK is diminished in the minds of the public, he will appear increasingly disingenuous in pushing to re-write the constitution.

The right wing argument is to appose changing the constitution is "irrational" Therefore 61% of the population are "irrational". Any country who's majority of citizens are irrational should not be given the power to interfere in other countries. Now that's irrational.

America needs support in Afganistn? Might want to tell, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, France, Spain and others they are just not supporting enough.

Not needed, not wanted by the majority. They can hold their little meetings make their pathetic reasons for change and fade away, down size to a jug on the mantle piece. At the end of the day most people are quite happy with the status quo.

Ganbare Japan!Today  08:35 am JST

Opponents of reform are not thinking rationally. They seem not to realize that the Japan of today is incredibly dangerous, most dangerous since WW2.

You haven't thought very hard about what you've written there, have you.

OssanAmericaToday  08:40 am JST

The need for Japan to re-examine it's constitutional constraints was brought about by China much earlier, not North Korea.

That's funny, other revision supporters seem to think it's necessary so that Japan can get involved in the US's overseas quagmires.