The Social Democratic Party may take a major step back from its historic decision in 1994 recognizing the Self-Defense Forces as constitutional and supporting the continuance of the Japan-U.S. security treaty, according to party sources.

The opposition party plans to term the SDF "almost unconstitutional" and adopt the goal of eventual abolition of the security treaty. Before 1994, the party regarded the SDF as unconstitutional and the security treaty as illegitimate.

According to a draft of the policy change compiled by senior SDP Upper House member Hideo Den, the party will call for gradually downsizing the SDF and reorganizing it into a force specializing in disaster relief.

The draft also says the role of the security treaty "will end with establishment of a regional security organization in Northeast Asia."

The party will also call for stronger wording in the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution to clarify Japan's antiwar stance, the sources said Tuesday.

SDP leader Takako Doi instructed Den to draft changes to party policy because the SDP's current stance on security issues came under heavy fire from local branches after the party's convention in July, the sources said.

Doi is expected to issue a statement on the party's new policy on national security by the end of the month.

The current policy was set in 1994, when then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, the SDP leader at the time, pushed through a historic reversal of the party's long-held pacifist platform at a time when the party was in a coalition with its longtime conservative foe, the Liberal Democratic Party.

Doi, who has promoted the SDP as a party dedicated to protecting the Constitution, replaced Murayama as party leader in 1996.

Some SDP members demanded the party simply revert to its pre-1994 position of not recognizing the SDF, but senior party officials decided to opt for a policy of reforming the SDF instead, arguing that it would be politically irresponsible to ignore the SDF's existence, the sources said.