Japan's Constitution revision concerning proposition

The ruling coalition in Japan, led by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, won a clear majority of parliamentary seats in Sunday's election. It now has enough votes to move ahead with the lifting of the constitutional restrictions on Japan's rights to develop and maintain war potential. A change which requires the approval of two-thirds of both houses of Parliament.

Following the ruling coalition's victory in the parliamentary election, Kishida said that the lawmakers should accelerate the discussions on the revision.

The attitude of the US, a country that still has large amounts of troops stationed in Japan, toward the move is acquiescent, even if it is aware that once the Constitution is revised, an important foundation of the postwar order in the Asia-Pacific will be shaken.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who visited Tokyo on Monday to offer condolences over the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, felt no qualms about giving an open endorsement to what the Kishida administration is about to do, even though the drawing up of Japan's Constitution came at costs of millions of lives including those of US servicemen.

The Constitution of Japan was written by the United States during its occupation of the country after Japan's surrender brought an end to World War II. Article 9 of that document forbids the nation from engaging in war and states military forces will never be maintained by the country.

Many nationalists in Japan feel the restrictions are a humiliation for the country and they have always maintained the dream of removing the constitutional fetters. Japan already boasts of the necessary advanced high-end manufacturing industries and technologies to upgrade its already modern self-defense forces to a world-class full-fledged military.

That calls for attention of the Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world as revising the Constitution would undoubtedly give a shot in the arm to the militarists and expansionists in the country that have long desired the country having the autonomy to wield force.

Since the rightists in Japan have refused to conduct any serious soul-searching about the country's wartime past, their uncaging of Japan from what it deserves would only brook trouble for the region somewhere down the line.