60 pct respondents say Japan's Constitution should stay unchanged

TOKYO - The latest poll result showed that 60 percent of respondents said the Japanese Constitution should stay unchanged, while 32 percent called for changing it, local media reported.

According to the poll conducted by Kyodo News Agency, though Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pursuing amending the fundamental law, more people compared with 20 years ago, when a poll showed that 55 percent hope to see no changes, support maintaining the pacifist constitution.

The Abe government changed the interpretation of the Constitution in July last year to lift the ban on collective self-defense. Security related legislations which will materialize the change are currently being deliberated in the Diet.

Regarding the constitution's provisions, 88 percent of respondents say that the most important one they hope to see unchanged was its war renunciation and pacifism, followed by respect for basic human rights picked by 51 percent.

In the poll, 67 percent said Abe should offer an apology for Japan's colonial rule and aggression before and during the World War II in his landmark statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war next month.

The percentage compares with 30 percent seeing no necessity for such an apology.

Asked about Japan's security policy changes, 66 percent of people who feel Japan is very likely to be involved in war in the future said the country is heading toward a worse direction, as did 56 percent of those viewing Japan's future involvement in war as "likely to some extent."

Kyodo News implemented the mail-based poll from May to June to look into public opinion 70 years after the end of WWII. In the poll, 63.2 percent of 3,000 randomly-selected adults sent back responses.