If the Takaichi government continues to recklessly push constitutional revision, it risks isolating Japan diplomatically, deepening distrust among its neighbors and burdening its own people with the costs and dangers of an increasingly militarized state.
BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) — Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has renewed its push to amend the country’s pacifist constitution, with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi declaring that “the time has come” for reform and expressing hope to present a proposal by next year.
What is unfolding marks a shift toward a substantive constitutional overhaul. This move has triggered widespread concern and criticism, as vigilance grows over a possible resurgence of militarism in Japan.
The latest push once again underscores how Japan’s right-wing forces are steering the country’s security policy in an offensive and expansionist direction.
In recent years, Japan has steadily loosened restrictions on arms exports, expanded defense spending, and enhanced its so-called “counterstrike capabilities,” signaling a gradual deviation from its exclusively defense-oriented policy.
Proposed changes, including revising the Article 9 of the Constitution, would provide legal backing for these moves, raising concerns that such steps could erode the constraints that have defined Japan’s pacifist framework for decades.
History offers a stark warning: Japanese militarism once plunged Asia into a devastating war, marked by brutal occupation and unimaginable suffering, leaving millions dead and entire nations scarred for generations.
Japan’s postwar constitution, especially Article 9, which states that 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, was established to ensure such a trajectory would never be repeated.
Resistance to constitutional revision has intensified both at home and abroad. Tens of thousands of people joined rallies across Japan amid growing fears that the country is abandoning its postwar pacifist path.
If the Takaichi government continues to recklessly push constitutional revision, it risks isolating Japan diplomatically, deepening distrust among its neighbors and burdening its own people with the costs and dangers of an increasingly militarized state.
Asia’s peace and prosperity have been built through decades of hard effort. Any move to weaken constraints on militarism would threaten not only Japan’s future, but also the region’s hard-won stability. Japan should heed the lessons of history before once again heading down a path of no return. ■
