ID :
57145
Fri, 04/24/2009 - 07:06
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/57145
The shortlink copeid
Over 60% of high schoolers against altering Article 9 of Constitution+
TOKYO, April 23 Kyodo - More than 60 percent of Japanese high school students surveyed are opposed to changing the war-renouncing Article 9 of the country's Constitution, up from 43.9 percent in a previous survey in 2004, a labor union of high school teachers said Thursday.
The latest survey, conducted last November by the Japan Senior High School
Teachers and Staff Union on 12,286 students at 148 high schools in 28
prefectures, indicated that 60.9 percent of the students were against a
possible revision of Article 9.
Meanwhile, the ratio of students who supported a revision stood at 11.5
percent, little changed from the previous survey's 11 percent.
Among respondents who said Article 9 should be left unchanged, 73.2 percent
cited as reasons that a revision ''could open the way to war,'' while 14.0
percent said, ''Article 9 is something (Japan should) boast about to the
world.''
In contrast, 43.3 percent of the students backing a revision of Article 9
referred to the existence of ''international issues that cannot be addressed
properly under the current Constitution.''
Article 9 stipulates ''the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign
right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling
international disputes.''
As for the Self-Defense Force, 24.8 percent of the respondents said they
believe it does ''not violate the Constitution,'' exceeding 19.3 percent who
said it is unconstitutional, while 33.7 percent gave no opinion on whether the
SDF is constitutional or unconstitutional.
The survey also indicated that 75.3 percent of the high school students
continue to be against Japan introducing military conscription. The figure has
been in the 70-80 percent range since 1977, when the teachers union began
compiling the survey.
The latest survey also showed that 84.1 percent of the students deemed it
necessary for Japan to uphold its three nonnuclear principles of not producing,
possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese soil.
==Kyodo
The latest survey, conducted last November by the Japan Senior High School
Teachers and Staff Union on 12,286 students at 148 high schools in 28
prefectures, indicated that 60.9 percent of the students were against a
possible revision of Article 9.
Meanwhile, the ratio of students who supported a revision stood at 11.5
percent, little changed from the previous survey's 11 percent.
Among respondents who said Article 9 should be left unchanged, 73.2 percent
cited as reasons that a revision ''could open the way to war,'' while 14.0
percent said, ''Article 9 is something (Japan should) boast about to the
world.''
In contrast, 43.3 percent of the students backing a revision of Article 9
referred to the existence of ''international issues that cannot be addressed
properly under the current Constitution.''
Article 9 stipulates ''the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign
right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling
international disputes.''
As for the Self-Defense Force, 24.8 percent of the respondents said they
believe it does ''not violate the Constitution,'' exceeding 19.3 percent who
said it is unconstitutional, while 33.7 percent gave no opinion on whether the
SDF is constitutional or unconstitutional.
The survey also indicated that 75.3 percent of the high school students
continue to be against Japan introducing military conscription. The figure has
been in the 70-80 percent range since 1977, when the teachers union began
compiling the survey.
The latest survey also showed that 84.1 percent of the students deemed it
necessary for Japan to uphold its three nonnuclear principles of not producing,
possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese soil.
==Kyodo
