Japan Defense Chief Quits Over Peacekeeping Remark

Japanese Defense Agency chief Keisuke Nakanishi abruptly resigned Thursday after his remark that Japan should change its constitution to allow its Self-Defense Forces to join more global peacekeeping missions set off a storm of protest.

The remark Wednesday night brought a critical parliamentary budget debate to a dead halt as the Liberal Democratic Party and the Communists refused to participate until Nakanishi resigned. With time running out for the government to pass an economic stimulus package and soothe Japan’s increasingly jittery financial markets, Nakanishi offered his resignation to Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa on Thursday evening.

The brouhaha underscored the fragility of Hosokawa’s coalition government and raised questions about whether it will be able to stay unified long enough to push through political reform, tax cuts and a supplementary budget.

The seven-party coalition is an eclectic group ranging from far right to far left, held together by the single issue of political reform. But, as Nakanishi’s remark demonstrated, it is sharply divided on other issues, such as defense policy.

The issue put two groups in the coalition squarely at loggerheads: the Socialists, many of whom oppose any constitutional change and regard as illegal the sending of Self-Defense Forces abroad, and the Japan Renewal Party, many of whom favor constitutional revision.

Although the Japanese constitution was drafted by the Allied Occupation after World War II, any suggestion that it needs revision provokes protest that changes could lead to a revival of militarism.

The constitution’s no-war clause has sparked intense debate over whether it allows the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces overseas to join U.N. peacekeeping missions. The government determined that it does and dispatched military personnel to Cambodia last year. But some scholars and politicians argue that the constitution should be clarified to explicitly allow such missions.