TAKE ACTION: Tell President Obama to encourage Japan to strengthen Article 9

from Nick Mele, Pax Christi USA National Council member

Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has already, only two months after its return to to power in December 2012, increased tensions in Northeast Asia. China, North and South Korea, and Russia are all wary of Japanese rearmament in light of the past but the Abe government seeks to weaken or revoke altogether constitutional restrictions <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_9_of_the_Japanese_Constitution> on expanding the Japanese military. On Friday, February 22, President Obama will meet with Prime Minister Abe for what the White House described as “in-depth discussions with Prime Minister Abe on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues, including the U.S,-Japan Security Alliance, economic and trade issues and deepening bilateral cooperation.”

The government of the United States has encouraged Japanese rearmament for over twenty years; the policy of support for an expanded role for Japan’s Self Defense Forces has been a consistent feature of Democratic and Republican administrations since the Reagan presidency. In view of the close security relationship between Japan and the United States, it is critically important that U.S. public opinion mobilize to oppose further militarization of Japan and especially to protect the Japanese Constitution’s Article 9, which renounces the right to wage war and relinquishes the use of military power as a tool of national policy.

Please contact the White House and urge President Obama to ask Prime Minister Abe to strengthen, not weaken, Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution. Submit comments online here <http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments> or call at 202-456-1111.