Abe announces plan to revise pacifist constitution

TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan announced on Wednesday a plan to revise a pacifist constitution that has been in place since it was enacted by American occupiers in 1947.

In a video message delivered at a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the constitution, Abe said he wanted to make “explicit the status” of the country’s self-defense forces, as Japan’s military is known, by amending the constitution by 2020.

As Japan faces continuing security threats from North Korea, Abe said that there should be no room for arguing that the military, with just over 227,000 active-duty troops, “may be unconstitutional.”

Japan has stepped up its show of military force amid concerns about North Korea’s provocative behavior, sending two naval destroyers to join the U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in exercises off the Korean Peninsula. And on Monday, a Japanese warship accompanied a U.S. Navy supply ship headed to join the Carl Vinson and three other warships in a strike group.

Pacifism is enshrined in the constitution, with a clause known as Article 9 calling for the complete renunciation of war. That clause represents a cherished part of the country’s postwar identity, and Abe has long made clear his desire to amend it. Previous calls to revise it have been met with skepticism in Japan and in countries including China and South Korea that object to any signs of Japan’s remilitarization.

Successive Japanese governments, as well as scholars, have argued that the military is constitutional because the charter allows the country to defend itself.

But Abe has pushed for a much broader interpretation, and two years ago he helped secure passage of security legislation that authorized overseas combat missions by the military in the name of “collective self-defense” and alongside allied troops. The passage of the laws came after a grinding political battle and days of public demonstrations.

About 55,000 people attended a meeting in Tokyo opposing the amendment, and opposition was strong on social media. But others suggested that Abe was merely trying to align the constitution with current practice.

Any revision would be subject to approval in a referendum. A poll published this week by Kyodo News showed that respondents were nearly equally split on the question of whether the pacifist clause should be revised.