Japan seeks to tweak pacifist statute, awaits cabinet nod

The Japan government is seeking to get the cabinet approval Tuesday to a resolution that will allow the country to exercise collective self-defence rights through reinterpreting the country's pacifist constitution.

"We would like to do so tomorrow (Tuesday) if the ruling parties can make arrangements," Xinhua quoted Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary, as saying.

A final version of the resolution has been submitted to Japan's ruling bloc, the Liberal Democratic Party and its partner the New Komeito party, to reach an agreement on it before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet approves it.

Exercising collective self-defence is a dramatic change in Japan's defence stance and has triggered concerns at home and abroad.

A protestor Sunday set himself afire in a move to oppose the Abe administration's efforts to lift the self-imposed ban on collective defence.

According to a latest survey conducted through June 27 to 29 by Japan's Nikkei News, half of the Japanese people oppose Japan exercising collective self-defence as the rights may drag Japan into war.

The survey also showed that 54 percent of the respondents said no to reinterpretation of Japan's anti-war constitution as the prime minister tries to change the interpretation of the Japanese pacifist supreme law to achieve the goal of collective defence, compared with 29 percent who support the move.

Separate polls said the support rate for Abe's Cabinet fell to 45 percent, the lowest since Abe took office in December 2012.