Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a speech during the annual rally on revising Japan's constitution organized by ruling party lawmakers in Tokyo, May 1, 2017. Abe has pledged to initiate debate in parliament on revising the country's constitution. (Shizuo Kambayashi / AP)
TOKYO — A poll shows that about half of Japan's population supports a constitutional revision that would clarify the legality of the country's military.
In the Nikkei newspaper poll, published Monday, 51 percent of 1,595 respondents supported including a reference to Japan's Self Defense Force in Article 9 of the constitution. Thirty-six percent were opposed.
Article 9 renounces war and the use of force to settle international disputes.
Japan decided it had the right under the 1947 constitution to have a military for self-defense, but some legal experts question that.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proposed recently that Japan in some way indicate the existence of the Self-Defense Force in Article 9, in an apparent compromise. Japan's ruling party has long advocated more radical revision, but the public generally supports the war-renouncing article.
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