Japan Enacts Referendum Law

In a historic step toward the first revision of the country's postwar pacifist constitution, Japan's Diet (parliament) enacted a bill on Monday setting the rules for a national referendum required for any constitutional changes, on the strength of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-led coalition's majority in both houses of the Diet.

Since taking office last September, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has advocated a more assertive foreign policy and further strengthened security alliance with the United States, Japan's most important ally. He has also called for a "departure from the postwar regime" and vowed to seek revisions of the constitution as his top-priority goal to allow the nation to play a greater role in the international security arena, especially in step with the U.S. Abe has specifically expressed a strong desire to see the constitution, which took effect in 1947, revised within five years.

Nationalist Japan!?!

International Herald Tribune

Sun May 20

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