-->zu"pazifistisch"


Mon May 3 05:19:00 2004(EST)
4CAST

A survey of 3,000 voters conducted by Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun showed 53% of respondents favoured some changes to the Japanese constitution - the highest level since the newspaper started such surveys in 1955.

A majority of Japanese believe that the US drafted pacifist constitution should be revised to allow more non - combat operations overseas - 57 years after it came into force

Debate is heating up in Japan over the US drafted constitution, particularly over Article 9 - which renounces the right to go to war and forbids a military, although it has been interpreted as permitting forces only for self - defence. Some 31% of Japanese specifically want to see alterations, up by 14 percentage points from a similar survey conducted 3 years ago

Implications: Though the LDP government may not want to be seen in the forefront of any possible change (in an attempt to appease Washington), market watchers expect LDP's main opposition will use this survey as a key reason to draft their own proposals for amendments by 2005 and 2006 respectively. Amendments to the constitution must be approved by two-thirds of the members of both houses of the parliament and a majority of voters in a referendum. Markets watchers in Asia believe this debate will heat up in coming weeks and may eventually work its way into the FX market. If changes to the constitution allows Japan to increase its military strength, Washington may come under heavy criticism from Beijing (feels it has a score to settle with Japan following Tokyo's wartime aggressions). This could risk straining relations. Keeping up the geo-political risk will be terrorist activities using this as an excuse to target Japanese assets overseas. Bottom-line, the JPY to be on the spotlight, for the wrong reasons this time around.