Japan's ruling LDP compiles election platform, unveils plan to revise constitution

Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-02 17:23:22|Editor: liuxin
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TOKYO, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has compiled its campaign platform for the Oct. 22 lower house election comprising six points, Kyodo News quoted a source close to the party as saying Monday.

According to the ruling party's election pledge, it will aim to make the first-ever amendment to the constitution that will first need a two-thirds majority backing in parliament as well as a majority in a national referendum.

On the contentious amendment, the LDP said it should be made "on the basis of sufficient debate inside and outside the party of four specific points."

One point includes the specific referencing of the status of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF).

Article 9 of Japan's pacifist Constitution decrees that the Japanese people forever renounce war and prohibits Japan from maintaining any war potential.

Amending this key pacifist clause has been widely denounced by opposition party members, internationally-recognized scholars on the issue, as well as legal entities.

The potentially divide issue has, according to recent media polls, also perturbed the public, the majority of whom wish the pacifist clause, instituted after World War II, to be left unchanged.

The other points set forth by the LDP, also include a controversial plan to allow exemptions to parts of the constitution during a state of emergency, a point already criticized thus far as being "exceptionally vague" by political observers here.

Free education and the merger of electoral districts in the upper house comprise the other major points in the ruling party's platform.

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