Japan's leader wants change of pacifist constitution

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe today said he wanted to pass legislation next year that would allow a national referendum on changing the country’s pacifist Constitution.

Abe, in a speech marking the end of this year’s parliamentary session, also said he aimed to amend the Constitution during his term in office.

The prime minister took office in September after winning a three-year term as ruling party president. The US-drafted Constitution, which bars Japan from warfare overseas, has never been amended since taking effect in 1947.

“I want to revise the Constitution while I am in office, though it is a historic task,” Abe said. “First, I want the legislation for a referendum to be passed in the next ordinary (parliamentary) session.”

Under Japanese law, special legislation is required for a referendum on the Constitution, which Abe wants to change to make it easier for the military to operate abroad.

Abe, however, faces considerable political obstacles. Amending the Constitution requires two-thirds support in both houses of Parliament and majority backing in a national referendum.

Members of Abe’s own Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the New Komei Party, are strongly opposed to stripping the charter of its pacifist provisions.

Constitutional change is a major plank in Abe’s platform of giving Japan a larger diplomatic and military role in the world and bolstering the country’s defence co-ordination with the United States, which bases some 50,000 troops there.