Over Half Of Japanese Oppose Abe's Plan To Propose Constitutional Amendment On Army - Poll

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2018) As many as 51 percent of the Japanese nationals oppose the country's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan top submit a proposal for the Constitutional amendment seeking to revisit Article 9 of Japan's constitution which bans it from using military force abroad.

According to the nationwide telephone public opinion survey conducted by the Kyodo news Agency on September 20-21 following Abe's reelection as the LDP president for the third consecutive term, 51 percent of respondents oppose the party's plan to submit proposal to revise the Constitution to the extraordinary Diet session in fall, while the number of those in favor of the move exceeded 35.7 percent.

In the same survey, 57.4 percent of respondents noted that they saw a problem in the fact that the prime minister had big powers in political and administrative decision-making, while 33.

6 percent of people answered that there was "no problem."

Only 29.7 percent praised the prime minister's reelection for the third consecutive term as the LDP president, 24.9 percent of respondents did not appreciate it and 44.7 percent failed to answer.

Japan's post-war constitution says the nation renounces war and abstains from using force as means of settling international disputes.

The law also bans land, sea and air "war potential," although Japan has a de facto army called the Self-Defense Force, which was allowed in 2016 to send troops overseas to help allies under attack.