Japan to have a 'military' again...

[Donster]

for first time since end of WWII

Couldn't get link to work. So here is story...

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan is to once again call its armed forces its "military", six decades after the United States stripped it of the right to keep an army, in the first revision of its post-World War II constitution.

The revision will mean little practical change for Japan, which has skirted its 1947 constitution by calling its military the "Self-Defense Forces," but marks a symbolic milestone in breaking another post-war taboo.

But the constitutional revisions risk raising tensions with neighboring countries, which accuse Japan of not atoning for its past aggression.

US occupation forces "compiled the current Japanese constitution within nine days," said former prime minister Yoshiro Mori, who led the constitutional revisions for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

"We cannot possibly say the constitution was created by the Japanese people's own hands," Mori told the party faithful at a Tokyo hotel. "Finally now the time has come for us to compile our own constitution."

Mori formally presented the draft before a 50th anniversary celebration for the LDP, the conservative party which has ruled Japan almost continuously since 1955 and which won an overwhelming majority in September elections.

The constitution is nearly certain to pass parliament, with the main opposition Democratic Party also backing revision. It would then be submitted to a referendum, with opinion polls indicating it would easily pass.

Pacifist groups, however, have vowed to put up a fight, promising rallies and an international campaign to defeat the revised constitution in a referendum.

The draft constitution maintains Japan's official pacifism, keeping a clause that says: "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."

Other than in name, Japan already has one of the world's best funded militaries, devoting close to five trillion yen (44 billion dollars) to defense a year.

Despite imposing the pacifist constitution, the US has since encouraged a greater military posture for Japan, one of its most loyal allies. The Self-Defense Forces now have more than 253,000 personnel.

The draft revision would keep the "Self-Defense Forces" terminology but also use the word military.

It omits a paragraph in Article Nine of the original document that says "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained."

Instead, the draft says: "In order to secure peace and the independence of our country as well as the security of the state and the people, military forces for self-defense shall be maintained with the prime minister of the cabinet as the supreme commander."

In light of the revision, the LDP will also seek to create a cabinet-level defense ministry. Japan now has a "Defense Agency" which has lower status than other ministries.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has tried to boost Japan's image as more than an economic power. He has deployed some 600 troops on a reconstruction mission to

Iraq, the first time since 1945 that Japan has deployed soldiers to a country where fighting is under way.

"In this time of major changes, it is our responsibility to carry out reforms to deal with society's changes while maintaining peace," Koizumi told an aging crowd of LDP stalwarts at the meeting, which featured an orchestra and an opera singer attempting the party anthem.

The LDP's Buddhist-oriented partner New Komeito, which calls itself the "pacifist party," had opposed military deployment overseas before joining the coalition but later conformed to the LDP position.

"We are still holding discussions on how to deal with Article Nine," New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki told the LDP meeting, saying the party would come up with its own proposal next year.

[mane_raptor]

Link no worky

[Schatten]

What Mane said.

[Donster]

Copied and pasted the story...sorry for problem.

[mane_raptor]

Thanks, Don

[Whizkid]

Hell,where's Itchie Crotchie when you need him? Or is he a Korean?

[JClark]

What all this amounts to, is a lot of diplomatic arm twisting. Japan receives a fair bit of military tech from the US, including AEGIS radar systems. Japan is doing this, to ease off some of the pressure on the US, with regards to providing security. The Bush administration also talked the Japanese government into agreeing to base a nuke carrier here, for the very first time. A good deal of this, is to put N. Korea in it's place, and to give the Chinese something to think about. In case anyone hasn't noticed it, the PRC and the PLAN are building up big time, and this time, are building a blue water navy.

Boats

[Stans]

The coalition between Russia, China, and North Korea has not gone un-noticed by me. This could be a dangerous alliance and does have to potential to threaten world stability.

[Edwin Rommel]

Japanez Geztapo haz zhe linked probably up gefoockt!

Schlimy rice eatink baztardz...

Ach Hi Ronin-- did not zhee you schtandink zhere!

[Ronin]

It this ok Rommel, cannot understand you a anyway!

Yes boys you read this, Old Ronin is getting some upgrade military the hardware! No more defence force old plane! Maybe I will get a the super attack Ki-84! Heh heh heh

[Shepherd]

Some how aginst China and North Korea, Japan doesn't seem so strong with or without a military. Of course we are leaving some bases so they might as well use them.

[Itchie Crotchie]

Hell,where's Itchie Crotchie when you need him? Or is he a Korean?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am hele! Itchie no Kolean you ord Rimey coot! Japan soon wolrd powel again! China and Kolea of the Nolth wirl feer the sting of oul boot! BANZAI! BANZAI! BANZAI!!!

[Stans]

Hmmm.... seeing as how Russia, China, and maybe North Korea all have nukes and Japan has banned such weapons from their soil, can you say "Colner's extla clispy"?

[Shepherd]

Hmm.........I can only wonder why they do not want such weapons on their soil?