The decision, announced October 28, came two weeks after the Upper House of parliament passed a controversial bill to privatize the post office, signaling the government’s resolve to step up attacks on working people at home.

The draft amendment is a step toward transforming Tokyo’s military and putting it on a par with those of its imperialist allies—the Japanese rulers’ goal since the post-World War II constitution was adopted. Drafted by Washington in the aftermath of its victory over Tokyo in that war, the constitution forbids Japan from using its military abroad. Tokyo has 240,000 troops and a military budget of nearly $50 billion, the fifth largest in the world.

“Military forces for self-defense shall be maintained with the prime minister of the cabinet as the supreme commander,” the LDP draft states. This would replace wording in the constitution that says: “Land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” Two days after the LDP announcement, Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi affirmed at a troop review near the capital that “I will do my best to improve an environment at home and overseas in which the Self-Defense Forces can fulfill their missions in style.”

The LDP is expected to formally announce its proposed amendment soon. To become law the revision must be approved by a two-thirds vote of parliament and a national referendum.

The constitutional clause has been at the center of a heated political dispute in Japan as Tokyo has pressed to use its military forces more aggressively in the region and as part of imperialist interventions in other parts of the world.

At a joint press conference at the Pentagon October 29, the U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign ministers announced an agreement that increases Tokyo’s role in the military alliance of the two imperialist governments. It includes stepped-up joint training and military exercises between Washington and Tokyo, and calls on the Japanese government to increase its “participation in international peace operation activities.” Tokyo will put in place X-band radar, which identifies and tracks incoming warheads. Under the accord Washington will redeploy about 7,000 Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa to Guam.

In 2003, the Japanese government sent hundreds of troops to Iraq as a part of Washington’s “coalition of the willing.” Tokyo has signed on to the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, under which Washington and its allies have stopped, boarded, and confiscated the cargo of ships they deem suspect of carrying “weapons of mass destruction.” Last year the U.S. Navy deployed Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan, off the waters of north Korea, laying the foundation for a U.S. “missile shield” that includes Japan. Such a shield would give Washington first-strike nuclear capacity.

On the same day as the LDP made its announcement, the Japanese government agreed for the first time to house a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Yokosuka port near Tokyo.

The Koizumi administration is taking these steps weeks after returning to office in a sweeping electoral victory. The prime minister called the September 11 elections after the upper house of parliament killed his bill to privatize the post office. With assets of $3 trillion, the post office is the main source of savings accounts, credit, and insurance for Japan’s population. On October 14 the upper house okayed the bill. Koizumi made it clear the Japanese rulers’ next targets include the health-care system.  
 
 
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