Some 59 percent of respondents to a Mainichi Shimbun opinion poll over the weekend saw no need to speed up discussions on constitutional revisions with the aim of having a revised supreme law take effect in 2020, a goal set by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The figure is well above the 26 percent who answered that Japan should speed up discussions to that end.
The public was split over a proposal made by the prime minister to add a paragraph defining the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to Article 9 while retaining the clause's war-renouncing paragraph 1 and paragraph 2 that bans Japan from possessing any potential for war. Some 31 percent of the pollees expressed opposition to the proposal and 28 percent were in favor of the idea, while 32 percent said they were unsure over the matter.
Nearly half, 49 percent, of the respondents said they do not think Article 9 should be reformed, up 3 points from the previous poll conducted in April, while 33 percent said the war-renouncing clause should be amended, also an increase of 3 points from the previous survey.
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