Posted on 03/22/2005 10:00:31 AM PST by HAL9000
(Kyodo) - A majority of a House of Representatives panel on Japan's Constitution has drafted a final report supporting Japan's proposed participation in international cooperation and collective security activities, panel sources said Tuesday.The support is apparently aimed at Japan's participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations mainly based on U.N. resolutions.
The draft report also calls for Japan to maintain the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, the sources said.
The report, which will be submitted next month to House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, showed that a majority approved the continued existence of a system that recognizes the emperor as the symbol of the state and the possibility of a female assuming the throne.
The report underscored the need to revise the Constitution, calling for a regional security framework to be created and for provisions on emergency situations to be stipulated.
The panel, named the House of Representatives Research Commission on the Constitution and led by Taro Nakayama, a former foreign minister, was set up in January 2000 to conduct in-depth research into the Constitution. A panel of the same name also exists in the House of Councillors.
The draft report, covering about 670 pages, is based on the opinions of more than 20 people on one theme over the past five years.
It has already been submitted to relevant entities such as the governing Liberal Democratic Party and main opposition Democratic Party of Japan. Based on the report, top members of these two parties and the New Komeito party, the LDP's coalition partner, will work toward formalizing a final report.
The LDP also wants the report to state that a majority backs Japan's right to collective self-defense, but this appears to be difficult as the DPJ is reluctant, the sources said.
Under the government's current interpretation, the supreme law prohibits Japan from exercising the right to collective self-defense, even though it is allowed to do so under international law.
Our Japanese friends are just trying to lure St. Hillary away from us by putting thoughts of Empress Hillary in her head.
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