Japans’s Takaichi Pushes Constitution Overhaul

(MENAFN) Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi seized the country's Constitution Memorial Day on Sunday to double down on her push to rewrite the nation's postwar supreme law — a move that is stoking nationwide protests and rattling Japan's pacifist foundations.

In a video address delivered to a gathering of constitutional revision advocates, Takaichi argued that the foundational legal document "should be periodically updated in accordance with the demands of the times," according to media.

The prime minister further vowed that her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) would "advance discussions in the Diet (Japan's parliament) aimed at reaching decisions while securing the cooperation of other parties."

Enacted in 1947, Japan's Constitution is widely known as the pacifist Constitution — a designation rooted in its Article 9, which formally renounces war as a sovereign right and bars the nation from maintaining "war potential."

Takaichi is spearheading what would be an unprecedented first-ever amendment to the document. Media reported that the proposed revisions could directly target Article 9, long regarded as the bedrock of Japan's post-WWII peace-oriented identity.

The push has been building for weeks. At an LDP convention on April 12, Takaichi declared that "the time has come" to overhaul the Constitution, stating that "we would like to hold next year's convention with a proposal for a constitutional amendment in sight" — remarks that have since ignited widespread public backlash and large-scale demonstrations across Japan.

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