Poll: 63% support constitutional reform amid Japan’s changing security environment; 93% mention the national security risk from China

According to a recent poll by The Yomiuri Shimbun, 63 percent of people support changing the constitution. Last year that was 61 percent and for the third year in a row this figure is around 60 percent.

This year’s figure is the highest since the mail-in survey was first conducted in 2015 and the second highest after the 65% who logged in in a 2004 survey, although making comparisons is difficult because there the 2004 survey used interviews.

In the latest poll, 35% of respondents were against changing the constitution, an increase of two percentage points from last year.

Regarding the waiver of Paragraph 1 of Article 9, 75% said the revision was unnecessary, unchanged from the previous survey.

However, 53% believed that there is a need to amend paragraph 2 of Article９, which prohibits Japan from maintaining its armed forces. This is two percentage points more than last year and the highest figure ever recorded. This figure exceeded those who believed that there was no need to amend paragraph 2 by 10 percentage points.

Meanwhile, 56% of respondents supported a Liberal Democratic Party proposal to include grounds for the existence of the Self-Defense Forces in the constitution, an increase of two percentage points from the previous survey, while 40% opposed it was an increase of two percent. points.

The increase in the number of people in favor of constitutional change appears to reflect Japan’s changing security environment.

Overall, 93% of respondents said China’s military buildup and intrusion into Japan’s territorial waters posed a “major” (59%) or “somewhat” (34%) threat to national security. The 93% total was repeated in a 2022 survey that asked a similar question. As for what to do with Article 9 in the future, 44% say it should be amended – up from 43% in the previous survey – because the interpretation and implementation of existing provisions is too restrictive to effectively deal with pressing security concerns . On the other hand, 38% said the current long-standing method of interpreting and implementing the provisions on a practical basis should continue, up from 37%.

Fourteen percent said Article 9 should be strictly enforced and not interpreted or implemented on a practical basis, up from 15%.

The survey was conducted from March 12 to April 18 among 3,000 eligible voters across the country, and 67%, or 2,002 people, provided valid responses.