Japan to revise constitution

Japan to revise constitution

TOKYO (AP): A record 60 percent of Japanese support the long- taboo idea of revising the nation's U.S.-written constitution, according to a newspaper poll released Saturday.

The daily Yomiuri's survey of 1,935 citizens nationwide broke the record of 53 percent set last year.

For the first time since the annual survey began in 1981, more than half of the respondents from each of six age groups - 20s to 70s - favored revising the 1947 document written by the U.S. occupation force after World War II.

Twenty-seven percent of those surveyed opposed revising the constitution, the first time that figure has fallen below 30 percent. The newspaper conducted the poll on March 18 and 19. It did not give a margin of error.

In February, lawmakers began discussing whether to rewrite the constitution after years of public debate focusing on the so- called "peace clause" - Article 9 - which declares that Japan will never maintain "land, sea and air forces as well as other war potential." Its military is known as the Self-Defense Force.