The deputy leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, Takahiro Yokomichi, on Saturday urged party leader Yukio Hatoyama to resign over his recent comment suggesting that Japan should revise its Constitution to stipulate it has the right to collective self-defense.
"If he continues (with such) remarks, we can't deal with the House of Councilors' election (scheduled for next summer), and if so we must have him quit as chief," Yokomichi told a gathering of DPJ officials in Hakodate, Hokkaido.
Yokomichi told reporters later in the day that he will convey the message to Hatoyama in person at Thursday's executive meeting of the DPJ, the largest opposition bloc in the Diet.
Yokomichi is considered one of the most vocal advocates in the DPJ for keeping the postwar Constitution intact.
In October, Hatoyama said the Constitution should stipulate that Japan has the right to collective self-defense, a provision guaranteed under the U.N. Charter that allows one country to help defend another that is under armed attack even if not under attack itself.
Hatoyama later withdrew his remarks following objections from some DPJ members who oppose revising the pacifist Constitution.
The Constitution stipulates that Japan renounce war and prohibits the use of force as a means of settling international disputes.
The government has said that Japan, as a sovereign state, has the right to collective self-defense under international law but that the exercise of that right is constitutionally not permissible.