Japan:Japan has taken a major step towards abandoning its 60-year- old pacifist stance with the Diet (parliament) passing legislation laying the groundwork for a constitutional referendum.
The move, Japan's first legal attempt to revise the war-renouncing constitution since it was written in 1947, is a political victory for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has vowed to scrap what he calls the country's "outdated" postwar architecture.
"We live in an era in which we must debate drafting a new constitution amid calls for Japan to play a larger role in the international community," he said yesterday during parliamentary debate on the legislation, which was marked by angry protests.
Supporters of revision say the country has outgrown article 9 of the constitution, which bans the maintenance of a conventional army and the use of force "as a means of settling international disputes". Japan's dispatch of a small "peacekeeping force" to Iraq has stretched the ban to the limit.
However, the legislation was attacked by the opposition Democratic, Social Democratic and Communist parties, which pledged to staunchly resist any attempt to scrap the constitution.
"The real fight starts now," said Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii, who said he would take the debate to the country.
The constitution cannot be amended without a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament and a majority in a national referendum. The new law, which comes into force in 2010, lowers the legal voting age in the referendum from 20 to 18 and effectively kick-starts a national debate on deepening "collective defence" with the US military.
The Japanese public is deeply divided on the issue. A survey last month by the conservative Yomiuri newspaper claimed 46 per cent supported constitutional revisions, while 39 per cent opposed them, but a similar poll by the liberal-left Asahi newspaper found 49 per cent opposed revising article 9 with 33 per cent in support.
An overwhelming 78 per cent in the Asahi survey said article 9, which was written under US occupation, "helps to maintain peace" while 40 per cent opposed extending Japan's mission in Iraq, indicating that many people hope constitutional change will leave article 9 intact.
Mr Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, however, has already written a draft constitution that scraps the war-renouncing clause and says Japan should "officially possess" an army for self-defence. Former prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, one of its key authors, said recently the change would finally make Japan "a normal country".