Democratic Party leader Katsuya Okada on Thursday reiterated that the main opposition party is against revising the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, but indicated there may be room to discuss amendments in other areas.
While urging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to rethink his view that the Constitution was "imposed" during the postwar Occupation by the Allied Forces, Okada said, "I have clearly said that we don't need to revise Article 9, but I haven't mentioned issues other than that.
"If an issue emerges that strikes me (as substantive), I will not say that I will not discuss it," Okada said at a news conference days after an Upper House election gave Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and other pro-amendment elements the wherewithal to push to revise the postwar Constitution for the first time ever.