A poll shows that about half of Japan’s population supports a constitutional revision that would clarify the legality of the country’s military.
In the Nikkei newspaper poll, published Monday, 51 percent of 1,595 respondents supported including a reference to Japan’s Self Defense Force in Article 9 of the constitution. Thirty-six percent were opposed.
Article 9 renounces war and the use of force to settle international disputes.
Japan decided it had the right under the 1947 constitution to have a military for self-defense, but some legal experts question that.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed recently that Japan in some way indicate the existence of the Self-Defense Force in Article 9, in an apparent compromise. Japan’s ruling party has long advocated more radical revision, but the public generally supports the war-renouncing article.

Source: Arab News