Japan's Self-Defense Forces were renamed Self-Defense Military and the words that deny Japan's possession of military forces and the right of belligerency of the state were deleted in a constitutional revision draft presented by the nation's ruling party on Tuesday.

The current pacifist constitution says in Article 9: "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." It also says "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."

Instead, the draft says: "In order to secure peace and the independence of our country as well as the security of the state and the people, military forces for self-defense shall be maintained with the prime minister of the cabinet as the supreme commander." It also says the "military" can take part in international coordination operations and that Japan can resort to the use of force with its allies to exercise the "right of collective self-defense."

In fact, Japan, despite criticism from the peace-loving people within the country and the international community, the Asian nations in particular, has never stopped expanding the self- defense forces and increasing its military muscle in the past decades.

It started to build its troops in 1954 under the name of self- defense forces, which have developed into a 240,000-strong troop possessing state-of-the-art facilities like Aegis destroyers, F-15 fighter jets and early-warning patrolling planes.

What is more, the self-defense forces' scope of operation has been extended from their homeland to as far as the Middle East.

In face of domestic and international criticism for the extension of the forces' operation scope and for their activities abroad, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), instead of exercising restraint, worked hard to press ahead with the constitutional revision.

For decades, arguments have never ceased in Japan over weather the country should take the road to peaceful development or revise Article 9 to expand military forces and make the nation a big political power.

The LDP has been the leading advocate for rewriting the constitution, especially the pacifist terms.

After being renamed, the troops will be free of the self- defense-only restriction. The revision means that the SDF can be sent to anywhere outside Japan. That is the essence of the renaming of the SDF which have been criticized for their foreign activities since 1991.

Although the paragraph of renouncing warfare remains, the draft advocates the government can exercise the "right of collective self-defense" even if its homeland is not under external attack.

In that scenario, the war-renouncing clause exists only in name. This cannot but remind people of a dangerous tendency.

The international community, especially the Asian countries, earnestly hopes Japan will remember the catastrophe its aggressive war has brought to its people and the peoples in other Asian countries, and respect and safeguard the current pacifist constitution so as to ensure lasting peace in Asia.

Source: Xinhua