Komeito, the junior coalition partner of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, has taken a cautious stance over the LDP's proposal to revise the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution, according to its election platform released Thursday.
The LDP will push for the first-ever amendment to the pacifist Constitution, with revisions to be made based on sufficient debate. The party has also said that it will touch on the issue of adding wording specifying the status of the Self-Defense Forces.
But Komeito, backed by major lay-Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, has stated in its campaign platform for the Oct. 22 Lower House election that "many Japanese people do not regard the SDF as unconstitutional."