Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (standing) addresses the LDP's Constitution drafting committee Oct. 28.

The move is expected to help spur the political debate on revising the Constitution that was promulgated in 1947 as the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan had already been prompted to prepare its own set of proposals for preliminary release.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who doubles as LDP president, called for a broad public debate to realize his party's wish of drawing up a new Constitution.

The draft maintains that the emperor is the symbol of the state and leaves intact the first paragraph of Article 9 that says "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."

The draft did not include the words "the Japanese people who love the country" included in an earlier version in an apparent bid to foster patriotism by a preamble-drafting subpanel headed by former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone.

The two most contentious elements of the preamble and Article 9 were finalized at a top meeting between Koizumi and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who heads the party's Constitution drafting committee, said Yoichi Masuzoe, the LDP member in charge of the drafting.

The Japan Times Weekly: Nov. 5, 2005
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