Empowered by a landslide election victory, Japan's ruling coalition will form a special committee next week to discuss constitutional changes that would give the military more freedom to act overseas, an official said yesterday.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner, the New Komei Party, reached a basic agreement with the top opposition group, the Democratic Party of Japan, to form the parliamentary committee, lower house spokesman Masakazu Tobashi said.
The committee will discuss legal procedures needed to amend the Constitution, which has never been done since the charter was enacted in 1947.
"Debate on whether to go ahead with amendments would come later," Tobashi said.
The LDP backs changing Article 9 of the Constitution -- known as the pacifist clause -- to more clearly define the military's right to aid allies and take part in peacekeeping missions overseas.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a strong supporter of US policy in Afghanistan and Iraq, has already dispatched non-combat troops to both areas under special laws which may be extended for a second time later this year.
Koizumi's stance has sparked fears in neighboring countries about a resurgence of Japanese militarism, which still haunts much of Asia 60 years after the end of World War II. Critics at home say the dispatches violate the Constitution.
The prime minister appeared to back away from the issue after securing a landslide victory in lower house elections last Sunday, saying he didn't have enough time left in office to achieve it.
He is scheduled to step down next September.
Article 9 of Japan's Constitution, drafted by US occupation forces after World War II, prohibits the use of force in settling international disputes.
The Japanese government has interpreted that to mean the country can possess armed forces for self-defense, and maintains a 240,000-strong Self Defense Force.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS