TOKYO, Oct. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday finalized its draft of a new constitution in a move toward amending Japan's fundamental law for the first time since its introduction after World War II.

    The move is expected to help spur the political debate on updating the law promulgated in 1947 as the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan has already been prompted to prepare its own set of proposals for a preliminary release next Monday.

    The LDP draft was approved in the afternoon at its Policy Research Council and the decision-making General Council.

    According to Kyodo News, the draft features a complete rewriting of the preamble and several additional clauses including one stipulating that Japan possesses military forces for self-defense that can take part in international security operations and keep public order at home in emergencies.

    It maintains that the emperor is the symbol of the state and leaves intact the first paragraph of Article 9 that says "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."

    As for the freedom of religion, the draft relaxes the ban on the state from religious education or any other religious activity to be relevant only when the activity goes beyond the scope of socially accepted protocol or manners, apparently in an attempt to define Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine as constitutional.

    Also, the final draft changed the words "the Japanese people who love the country" in the preamble to "the Japanese people shall share the responsibility to support and protect the country or the society they belong to on their own with love, a sense of responsibility and spirit."

    The draft is also designed to clear the way for Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense, which the government interprets as being banned under the current Constitution, and to play a larger role in international security efforts.

    The right to collective self-defense refers to the right to stage a fight when an ally comes under attack. Enditem