Abe may amend Japan’s Constitution this year

Abe said in a speech in Kobe city on Saturday he planned to submit a proposal for the first ever amendment of Japan’s post-World War Two Constitution during an extraordinary session of parliament that will be convened later this year, Japan’s main daily newspapers reported. 

Abe has proposed amending the constitution’s war-renouncing Article 9 by 2020 to officially recognize Japan’s Self-Defense Forces as its military. The Japanese military is known as the Self-Defense Forces, but Abe said there is a contradiction between the constitution and the existence of the SDF. 

“I believe that we must establish the status of the SDF explicitly in the Constitution during our generation’s lifetime and leave no room for contending the SDF could be unconstitutional,” Abe said in a video message to a Tokyo forum marking the 70th anniversary of the Constitution. “I strongly wish to make 2020 the year that the reborn Japan will make a new start.” 

Such a change could draw fire from China and South Korea, where bitter memories of Japan’s past military aggression persist. They would likely see the change as a step toward the re-emergence of Japan as a military power.

Abe had been expected to wait until next year before seeking legislators’ approval of the change. He would need to win the support of two-thirds of members of both houses of parliament and a majority of votes in a referendum. 

Supporters of Japan’s post-war pacifism view Article 9 as the foundation of its democracy. Many conservatives see it as a humiliation imposed by the United States after Japan’s defeat in 1945.

Japan’s current Constitution came into effect in 1947 after its defeat by allied forces in World War II. Article 9 of the document says that “land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential will never be maintained.”

An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale rocked Nagano prefecture in Japan on Sunday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The temblor occurred with the epicentre at a latitude of 35.9 degrees north and a longitude of 137.6 degrees east, Xinhua news agency reported. The quake logged upper 5 in some parts of Nagano prefecture on the Japanese seismic intensity scale which peaks at 7. So far no major damage or injuries were reported, and no tsunami warning has been issued.