Japan's House of Representatives Speaker Yohei Kono suggested
Tuesday that Japan should maintain its war-renouncing Constitution
rather than revising it in order to try and gain a permanent seat
of the UN Security Council.
"Japan has a choice of abandoning its policy to seek to become a
permanent member of the UN Security Council and pursuing its role
as a UN member," Kono was quoted by Kyodo News, warning against the
growing calls at home and abroad for a revision of the country's
Constitution.
His comments came after US Secretary of State Colin Powell said
last week, "If Japan is going to play a full role on the world
stage and become a full active participating member of the Security
Council, and have the kind of obligations that it would pick up as
a member of the Security Council, Article 9 would have be examined
in that light."
Kono said: "It is not appropriate to revise Article 9 because
the United States urges us to do so."
Article 9, the centerpiece of Japan's pacifist Constitution,
stipulates 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."
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2004)
????