Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 16, 1993 TAG: 9301160128
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
JAPAN RETHINKING MILITARY BAN
Japan's three biggest political parties this week have shattered the 47-year taboo on any hint of change in the country's American-written pacifist constitution.Senior officers of the governing Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Social Democratic Party and Komeito (Clean Government Party) all have called for debate on Article 9 of the 1946 constitution.
Article 9 "forever renounces" war as a means of settling international issues and prohibits maintenance of an army, navy or air force equipped for any but self-defense fighting.
"For Japan, even open debate of Article 9 is a watershed equivalent to the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany, because it defines the end of Japan the defeated World War II power and pliant postwar American protege," a political analyst for a European embassy said.
The Liberal Democratic Party's internal governing body tentatively agreed Wednesday to propose the creation of a multiparty panel to review the constitution.
That forced the two main opposition parties to confront the issue directly or risk being left out of one of the biggest decisions the country has faced since World War II.
"Japan's position in international society is changing, and the Cold War is over," Komeito secretary-general Yuichi Ichikawa said. "It no longer makes sense to think of discussing Article 9 as something that is taboo."
Discussion of Article 9 seemed politically inconceivable as recently as last summer.
But many Japanese also believe that with a new Democratic administration in Washington Tokyo needs to be more assertive. Most officials here have felt secure for the last 12 years with Republican presidents who have been at least rhetorically committed to free trade and close relations with Japan.