Free Republic

Tokyo urged to consider N-bombs Peter Alford, Tokyo correspondent September 07, 2006 JAPAN should study the possibility of acquiring nuclear weapons, says former prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, because its US security blanket cannot be guaranteed to last forever. Mr Nakasone's call for the next government to consider nuclear weapons and to prepare an independent defence strategy comes from a man who as prime minister from 1982 to 1987 was the most outspoken Japanese leader in support of the US security alliance. Famed for his warm "Ron and Yasu" relationship with then US leader Ronald Reagan, Mr Nakasone remains strongly pro-alliance,...

61% support constitutional revision The Yomiuri Shimbun Sixty-one percent of respondents to a nationwide Yomiuri Shimbun survey support revision of the Constitution, the second-highest figure since the opinion poll on the top law was first taken in 1981. The figure marks the second consecutive year that support for constitutional revision has exceeded 60 percent, with 65 percent reported last year. The survey results show demand for a new constitution that reflects the changed times finally has widespread support, 60 years after the end of World War II. Lawmakers have been increasingly active in discussing revision of the supreme law. The...

(Kyodo) - A majority of a House of Representatives panel on Japan's Constitution has drafted a final report supporting Japan's proposed participation in international cooperation and collective security activities, panel sources said Tuesday. The support is apparently aimed at Japan's participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations mainly based on U.N. resolutions. The draft report also calls for Japan to maintain the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, the sources said. The report, which will be submitted next month to House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono, showed that a majority approved the continued existence of a system that recognizes the...

Opposition parties slam Powell for pushing constitutional change Saturday, August 14, 2004 at 04:00 JSTTOKYO ? U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's suggestion that Japan should consider rewriting its war-renouncing Constitution in order to get a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council drew fire from opposition lawmakers in Japan on Friday. "He's wrong," said Hirohisa Fujii, secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan. Powell made the remarks in Washington on Thursday in an interview with Japanese reporters. He said it is entirely up to the Japanese people to decide whether to revise the war-renouncing Article 9...