Activists from the left and right of the political spectrum staged rallies Wednesday as Japan observed its 53rd Constitution Day, coinciding with an increase in interest in the document because of the establishment of Diet panels to study its revision.
Much of the heated debate is focused on Article 9, under which Japan renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation.
At a gathering of conservative elements at Sabo Kaikan, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, politicians and scholars maintained that the present-day Constitution was forced upon Japan by the Allied Occupation Forces. They called for the nullification of Article 9 and demanded the addition of a new article that would condone the re-establishment of a national army.