Taro Nakayama (center), Lower House chairman of the Research Comission on the Constitution, submits the Constitution revison report to Lower House President Yohei Kono on April 15.

The report, summing up five years of discussions by the 50-member panel, was largely aimed at discussing key principles in the Constitution and does not mean an immediate revision.

Public support for amending the Constitution has swelled as Japan raises its international military and diplomatic profile. Recent newspaper polls showes about half of the public supports changing the pacifist provisions.

Japan dispatched non-combat troops to Iraq last year in its first deployment to a combat zone since 1945 and is relaxing its ban on arms exports to facilitate joint construction of a missile defense program with the United States.

The report says the majority of panel members supported keeping the war-renouncing Article 9 but stressed the need to spell out the right to self-defense and the Self-Defense Forces. They agreed to specify the definition of defense emergencies and a framework for regional security in Asia.

The panel supported an amendment to allow women to assume the Imperial throne while retaining the emperor's status as the symbol of state.

The Japan Times Weekly: April 23, 2005
(C) All rights reserved