LDP accelerates moves toward renouncing Article 9

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on February 19 said that Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's remarks calling for the Self-Defense Forces to be defined as armed forces can be taken as a demand that Japan be allowed to constitutionally exercise the right of collective self-defense.

Prime Minister Koizumi recently said that Article 9 should be rewritten so that the Japanese Self-Defense Forces can be officially regarded as national armed forces.

Shii said, "For Japan to exercise the right of collective self-defense will mean allowing the SDF to openly take part in U.S. wars overseas and use force. The call for a constitutional revision is focused on this point. Keeping this in mind, we will fight against such constitutional changes."

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A task force of the Liberal Democratic Party Constitution Research Council on February 19 published part of its viewpoints on constitutional revision concerning the "preamble" and the section on "the Diet and the cabinet."

The LDP project team demanded that the preamble be rewritten to add words as "respect" for "Japan's tradition" and "patriotism". It also advocated that "excessive" respect for pacifist principles and human rights, as well as for Article 9, should be reviewed.

"This amounts to an open challenge against the peace Constitution and human rights,"Akahata warned on February 20. (end)