65% feel Japan need not rush to debate Constitution revisions: poll
TOKYO, May 2 Kyodo - A total of 65 percent of the Japanese public see no need to rush to debate revisions to the Constitution in parliament, a Kyodo News poll showed Wednesday, despite Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's hope to make an amendment while in office.
While 75 percent of survey respondents said it was necessary to revise the Constitution, which was drafted by U.S.-led occupation forces after World War II and has never been amended, there was division over rewriting the war-renouncing Article 9, with 51 percent in support and 46 percent against the move.
Kishida has expressed that he intends to revise the Constitution during his tenure as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which will run through September. The agenda is apparently part of an effort by him to shore up the party's conservative support base.
On a question regarding Kishida's desire to revise the Constitution by September, 65 percent said they feel "no need to rush," while only 33 percent called for expedited discussions at the Diet.
Asked about what the approach for revising the supreme law should be, 72 percent hoped for broad consensus-building, including onboarding political parties that are cautious about revisions, whereas 24 percent said parties in favor of revisions should go ahead with formulating draft articles.
Japan's postwar Constitution has never been revised since coming into effect in 1947, nor has a bid been made to initiate a formal amendment process, partly because of the high hurdle for proposing an amendment in parliament.
The ruling coalition of the LDP and the Komeito party needs the help of some opposition forces to secure the two-thirds majorities in both houses of the Diet required before amendment proposals can be put to a national referendum.
Even among respondents who back the LDP, only 46 percent expressed that they recognized the "need to rush," while supporters of the Japan Innovation Party, another pro-revision group, returned the same figure.
Among those who said they felt the Constitution needs to be amended, the largest group of 60 percent gave "not fitting today's era anymore" as the reason they wanted it changed, followed by 25 percent who called for "adding new rights, obligations and rules."
Respondents who were against revisions totaled 23 percent, with 47 percent citing the importance of maintaining peace and renouncing war under the Constitution as the reason for their standpoint, with 18 percent feeling "no inconvenience" under the current supreme law.
On a question that asked respondents to pick up to three topics on the Constitution they felt should be discussed in parliament, "Article 9 and the Self-Defense Forces" was the most common choice at 34 percent, followed by "the right to life, including social security," at 31 percent.
Article 9 renounces war and bans the possession of military forces, or anything else with "war potential." The LDP has proposed adding an explicit reference to the SDF into the Constitution to leave no room for the argument that having armed organizations, even for self-defense, violates the pacifist charter.
Of those who back changing Article 9, 67 percent said they did so because of the "changing security environment" in and outside the country, such as North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, China's military buildup and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The mail-in survey was conducted between March and April ahead of Constitution Memorial Day on Friday, targeting 3,000 people aged 18 or over, of whom 65.5 percent returned valid answers.
While a series of lawsuits have been filed in Japan over the constitutionality of not admitting same-sex marriage, 73 percent said the state should recognize same-sex marriage, with 25 percent opposing the idea.
Among the Group of Seven advanced economies, Japan remains the only country to have not legalized same-sex marriage or civil unions.
Concerning other contentious issues, allowing married couples the choice of keeping their surnames separate garnered 76 percent of approval, while 22 percent opposed it.
Japan's Civil Code requires that married couples share the same surname. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the wife chooses the husband's.
==Kyodo
