Posted on 04/11/2005 7:51:53 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Sixty-one percent of respondents to a nationwide Yomiuri Shimbun survey support revision of the Constitution, the second-highest figure since the opinion poll on the top law was first taken in 1981.
The figure marks the second consecutive year that support for constitutional revision has exceeded 60 percent, with 65 percent reported last year.
The survey results show demand for a new constitution that reflects the changed times finally has widespread support, 60 years after the end of World War II. Lawmakers have been increasingly active in discussing revision of the supreme law.
The survey was conducted on March 12 and 13 at 250 locations. Of 3,000 randomly sampled eligible voters, 1,795, or 59.8 percent, provided valid responses.
Those indicating approval for constitutional reform were in the majority in every age bracket and accounted for more than 60 percent among Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) supporters.
A record 67 percent of supporters of Minshuto, the largest opposition party, approved revision of the fundamental law, exceeding the 64 percent of LDP supporters that backed constitutional revision. Nearly 40 percent of respondents supporting the Japanese Communist Party or the Social Democratic Party, long-considered pro-Constitution opposition parties, also approved revision.
Fifty-one percent of respondents who supported constitutional reform said there were new problems, including Japan's participation in international peace cooperation activities, that the current Constitution cannot deal with.
There was a four percentage point increase from last year in those opposed to revision of the supreme law, up to 27 percent.
The largest group, or 44 percent of respondents, supported revision of Article 9 of the current Constitution--the controversial war-renouncing provision--one percentage point less than last year. The second-biggest group, or 28 percent--up one percentage point from last year--said Article 9 should continue to be interpreted or applied in a flexible way.
Only 18 percent, two percentage points down from last year, said Article 9 should be observed strictly without flexible interpretation or application, according to the survey.
Ping!
So....what changes to the constitution are they looking at?
ping
HEADLINE:
PRESIDENT TO DO SOMETHING
Congress likely to react
(uh, you mind telling us WHAT the Japanese are going to do?)
One of the major issues would be article 9 that restricts the use of military overseas, which would be the main point of this article. However, the positive attitude for a change in article 9 has once declined in the past. Meanwhile, the Japanese people feel a need to participate more in the United Nations Peace Keeping Operations since they were criticized in the Gulf War for lack of participation. This movement should not be seen as a pro-American attitude, but fear against isolation from the world while under threat from China and people's demand to be part of United Nations.
I've long believed the only reason Japan is not a nuclear power is because they store the triggers on one side of the room, and the warheads on the other.
As I read the last two paragraphs, that would be Article 9...
Banzai Nippon!
Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
You got a point there. Maybe a China-Japan-India axis in the future? Tom Clancy wrote of such in Debt of Honor. Who would have thought a China-India "strategic partnership" was possible until now? India can take over Australia, China taking over Siberia, and Japan taking over WestPac. That was the scenario envisioned by Clancy. In the same novel, suicide pilot crashed into the Capitol Building, killing POTUS and whole bunch of top officials. Who would have thought that being possible?
Obviously this is not a direct result of the anti-Japanese protests that have taken place throughout China over the past week, but certainly it is a result of China's increasingly aggressive behavior in many other areas as well as her hard pressed desires to become a regional and global military power.
I believe that Japan is the sleeping dragon of Asia and China should take care not to shake the ground too much
How is the Japanese constitution amended?
"I believe that Japan is the sleeping dragon of Asia and China should take care not to shake the ground too much."
I agree totally. The future of Asia is in what Japan does, not what China, or even India, does. The Japanese have been the most progressive and dynamic Asian nation since the Meiji Resoration in the nineteeth century. Western powers have always overlooked this trend to their detriment, constantly romanticizing the Chinese and the Indians beyond all sense or reason. This western myopia continues to this day, what with all of this blather about China and India by western intellectuals, diplomatic careerists, and socialist economists, disgregarding the fact that the Japanese already have the second largest GDP of any nation on earth, second only to the US. What could be better than a US-Japan alliance to secure the Pacific rim?
Ever read " The Coming War With Japan " ? Interesting read ...
Please rewrite Article 9. Please rearm. We need could use Japan's help for protecting Taiwan and against China/North Korea.
I don't see Japan and China uniting with current hostilities.
i love it when folks get religion!
btw, it was a laugh after the l.a. riots when rich hollywood women realized that the police do not exist to protect them, but exist to take reports after murders.
so these ladies got guns to protect themselves.
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