Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indicated Tuesday that he disagrees with some calls from members of his Liberal Democratic Party to seek changes to the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution that go beyond his own proposal first made last May.
Abe proposed adding to the existing paragraphs of Article 9 an explicit reference to the Self-Defense Forces. He says the change is intended to leave no room for the argument that an armed organization — even for self-defense — violates the pacifist charter.
But some LDP members have called for removing the key second paragraph of Article 9, seeing it as having long complicated the SDF's status. The paragraph says Japan shall not maintain "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential."