U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told a Japanese lawmaker Wednesday that the war-renouncing Article 9 of Japan's Constitution is becoming an obstacle to strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance.
Armitage indicated Japan must revise the Constitution and play a greater military role for international peace if it wants to become a permanent U.N. Security Council member, Hidenao Nakagawa, chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters after meeting with Armitage.
Armitage communicated the ideas as his personal opinion and said the Japanese people should decide on the issue of constitutional revision, Nakagawa said.
Article 9, the centerpiece of the nation's pacifist Constitution, stipulates the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."