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Japan ruling party proposes having 'real' military
Japan ruling party proposes having 'real' militaryWow! I'd heard rumors about this, but am still floored by this announcement. I wonder what the Japanese populace thinks about this move? By George NishiyamaFri Oct 28, 8:39 AM ET Japan should possess a military not just to defend itself, a role to which it has been restricted for nearly 60 years, but to play a greater role in global security, the main ruling party said on Friday. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party proposed revising the country's pacifist constitution, which has not been changed since it was written by U.S. Occupation authorities just after World War Two. The draft may touch nerves in Asia, where bitter memories of Japan's wartime atrocities run deep. Ties with China and South Korea, already strained, deteriorated further after Koizumi last week visited a shrine for war dead seen by Beijing and Seoul as a symbol of Japan's past militarism. Japan abandoned the right to wage war or maintain a military under Article Nine of its postwar constitution, but the article has been interpreted to allow forces for self-defense. It has also been construed to allow 600 Japanese troops to do humanitarian and reconstruction work in Iraq, and to let Japan's navy provide rearguard support on the Indian Ocean for U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan. Under the LDP proposal, the 240,000 member Self-Defense Force (Jiei-tai) would be renamed "Jiei-gun." The phrase translates as the same in English, but the word "gun" makes clear it is a military force. "We will never wage war again," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters when asked about the proposal. "But we should make it clear that maintaining a force for self-defense is not against the constitution." Also their American allies would love to have another deterrent force for our Asian buddies China and N. Korea While revising the U.S.-drafted constitution has been one of LDP's founding principles since it was formed 50 years ago, it had not proposed changes in view of public opposition. A public opinion survey published earlier this month showed that a majority of Japanese favored revising the constitution, but nearly two-thirds opposed changing the pacifist Article Nine. LONG ROAD AHEAD Since taking office in 2001, Koizumi has said he favors clarifying the military's ambiguous status, and many in the LDP, frustrated by limits to military cooperation with allies overseas and urged on by Washington, have also pushed for change. The release of the draft comes on the heels of Wednesday's agreement between Japan and the United States on the relocation of a U.S. military base in Japan, which clears the way for a reorganization of U.S. forces throughout Japan to seek tighter ties with the Japanese military. Relations with Beijing and Seoul, however, have deteriorated largely due to Koizumi's visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are honored along with Japan's war dead. In a bid to assure Asian neighbors that there will be no resurgence in Japanese militarism, the draft constitution says any overseas deployment of the military would be for activities conducted as part of "international cooperation." It also says Japan will remain a "pacifist nation," and it keeps the clause renouncing war as a means of settling international disputes. But the road to revising the constitution will be a long one. The LDP plans first to hold talks with its coalition partner, the New Komeito, whose main support group is a lay Buddhist organization with a cautious stance toward expanding the role of the military. Revising the constitution would require the approval of two-thirds of the members of both houses of parliament and then a majority of the voters in a referendum. One significant attack against Japanese interests will bring public opinion round to the war side again. The party may seek to hold a national referendum in 2009, but the procedure for such a vote has not been established, so the LDP would first have to enact a law laying out the steps. EP Posted by: ElvisHasLeftTheBuilding 2005-10-28 |
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