Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Several hundred demonstrators gathered near the Diet in Tokyo on Sunday to express their opposition to changes in the Japanese constitution.

Wearing flags with images of doves symbolizing pacifism and signs with the number “9,” the article in the constitution that renounces war, the activists from civil societies and various labor movements listened to three opposition politicians opposed to what they term the “militarist intentions” of the new government of KISHIDA Fumio.

The officials from the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party recounted the “attacks” on the peaceful nature of the constitution:  the expansion of the construction of the US military base in Okinawa; the words of Prime Minister Kishida who said that Japan should consider the possibility of becoming a country that can carry out pre-emptive attacks against a country that threatens  security of Japan; and the joining of various parties close to the government, such as Komeito and the Isshin no Kai party, to discuss amending the peaceful nature of the Japanese constitution. Japan is the only country in the world that officially prohibits war.

A protester told Arab News that since the Shinzo Abe government, the process of amending the constitution has been initiated and that three political parties have recently agreed to change the constitution.

Recent military threats from China and North Korea to the peaceful balance of East Asia have accelerated the ideological process for supporters of Japanese boosting its defense.

For more than 70 years, no member of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces has actively participated in an armed conflict using lethal force, which the Japanese constitution prohibits.