TOKYO, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Shintaro Ishihara, former Tokyo governor and co-leader of the opposition Japan Restoration Party, said Thursday that he aims to build a new party to reform Japan's pacifist Constitution, his long sought goal, local media reported.
Ishihara, an 81-year-old nationalist, told reporters the previous day that the Japan Restoration Party, led by him and Osaka city mayor Toru Hashimoto, split into two as he firmly opposed Hashimoto's attempt to merge with the smaller opposition Unity Party.
Known for his hawkish views, Ishihara has long advocated the creation of a new Constitution that allows Japan to have strong armed forces that can go to war, while the Unity Party, on the contrary, supports for the Constitution in its current form.
"I thought I would never be able to accept the Unity Party Chief's view on the crucial issue of Japan's right to collective self-defense," Ishihara said Thursday. He pointed that one of the main reasons he returned to national politics in 2012 was to change the Constitution.
Japan Restoration Party currently has 53 seats in the lower house and nine seats in the upper house. According to party sources, more than 10 of the lawmakers are expected to follow Ishihara to form a new party.
The exercising of collective self-defense right in Japan is banned under the current war-renouncing Constitution. But the incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to change the interpretation of the Article 9 to allow the Self-Defense Forces to come to the defense of an ally.
Ishihara holds closer attitude with Abe and promised to assist him on this issue.
In April 2012, then Tokyo governor Ishihara announced plans by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to purchase China's Diaoyu Islands in East China Sea. The Japanese central government eventually bought part of the Islands from what they called "the private owner," which has strongly undermined Sino-Japan relations.
|
