a political issue in a general election, and the LDP has generally refrained from
categorizing the issue in its immediate political agenda.
Recent reform movements
On November 22 , 2005 , the LDP released a draft proposal to reform the Consti-
tution. This draft was spawned by momentum from a movement in the 1990 s
towards reforming the Constitution. As mentioned above, the main justification in
the 1950 s for revising the Constitution was that the Constitution was deemed
illegitimate because the United States had imposed its will on Japan. Although
support can still be found for such an argument today, the main argument for
revision has shifted gradually from one of replacing an illegitimate constitution to
one of revising a legitimate but imperfect one.
In the late 1990 s, the prospects for revision began to take shape. The outbreak
of the Gulf War in 1990 had legitimized the LDP government’s decision to put
the problem of constitutional reform back on its political agenda. The Gulf War
focused world attention on Japan’s political unwillingness to contribute personnel
to a United Nations-endorsed multinational military and peacekeeping operation.
Although the Japanese government spent US$ 13 billion on financially supporting
multinational forces against Iraq, no troops were deployed, on the ground that
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution prohibits the government from dispatching
the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) abroad.
The Gulf War generated international criticism of Japan due to its absence from
the multinational military force. The Japanese financial contribution seemed weak
to the United States government, and Japan was perceived as attempting to buy
its security. After the Gulf War, questions quickly emerged, along the lines of
“why isn’t Japan contributing in amounts commensurate with the size of its
economy?” and “why does Japan alone not have to suffer war casualties, but instead
can seemingly buy its way out of the Gulf War?”^6 Japan was expected to contribute
both financially and with a contingent of personnel.
The LDP government exploited this call for international peacekeeping to justify
reforming the Constitution. Since Japan was a leading world economy with
many Japanese living or travelling abroad, the LDP government harshly criticized
Article 9 as embodying a “one-country pacifism” and insisted on the need to meet
its international responsibilities.
This argument struck a chord with many Japanese people. Major Japanese
newspapers and public-opinion polling organizations periodically conduct surveys
of public opinion on various aspects of the Constitution. According to a survey
conducted by theYomiurinewspaper in 1991 , 33. 1 percent of the people favored
(^6) Kenneth L. Port,Transcending Law: The Unintended Life of Article 9 of the Japanese
Constitution(Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2010 ), p. 67.