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Japan's main opposition Democratic Party on Wednesday pledged to block the controversial revision to a key pacifist clause in the Constitution being pitched by the ruling bloc, as the party set out its campaign platform for the upper house election on July 10.
The Democratic Party has stipulated in its campaign platform that it is fully opposed to any revision to the war-renouncing Article 9 of Japan's Constitution, which decrees that war will forever be renounced, a military not maintained, and force never used to settle international disputes.
The main opposition party's platform also ardently sets out its plan to scrap the highly-contentious war legislation that was forced through parliament and into law, marking the biggest security revision since WWII, that allows Japanese Self-Defense forces to engage in combat overseas.
The unilateral reinterpretation of Article 9 by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet and its subsequent forced passage into law on the back of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition's majority in parliament has been deemed unequivocally unconstitutional by the majority of experts on the matter, both from academic and legal backgrounds.
The Democratic Party has reiterated the public's majority sentiment on the matter, stating in its platform that while it embraces a Constitution that is progressive, the new security legislation threatens the pacifism assured by the Constitution and the peace it has provided Japan over the past seven decades.
The party also set out plans to combat the nation's growing social security economic crisis, stating that it would bolster financing through administrative reforms against a back drop of ineffectual economic polices that fall under the prime minster's "Abenomics" umbrella, that have failed to reverse deflation or kickstart a stagnant economy.
The Democratic Party said, specifically, it plans to invest in people and bridge the growing gap in wealth between the nation's rich and poor that has continued to widen since Abe retook office.
It also said it wants the nation to be less reliant on nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima crisis and, in addition, wants Japan to oppose the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement inked in February.
(APD)
