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Japan's largest anti-war protests in decades highlight a population divided over changes to its pacifist constitution.
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It's a sentiment that is gaining more and more volume in Japan, which is currently witnessing its largest anti-war protests in decades.
Since coming to power in October 2025, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has taken major steps away from the country's post-war pacifist stance, lifting long-standing restrictions on arms exports and expanding Japan's military role abroad.
The government says such moves are necessary in an increasingly tense region. But for many residents, it's raising alarm.
As fears grow that Japan is becoming a war-capable nation, protests are gaining momentum.
Public protests in Japan tend to be relatively restrained. There's a strong cultural understanding of social harmony and not causing disruption. So when people do take to the streets in large numbers, it usually signals something deeper.
This time, the issue is Japan's national identity.
After World War Two, Japan adopted the constitution, including Article 9, which prohibits the maintenance of armed forces and renounces war as a right of sovereignty.
Now, Takaichi says this framework no longer reflects reality. Geographically, Japan sits in a challenging neighbourhood with an assertive China, an unpredictable North Korea, and Russia nearby. And the United States, its closest ally, has been encouraging Tokyo to play a more active security role.
She's not the first Japanese leader to push for changes to Japan's postwar security framework.
Over the past few decades, conservative leaders, most notably from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, have called for amendments to Japan's 1947 constitution. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had advocated revising Article 9 to formalise the role of the self-defence forces.
Under Abe, the Diet passed a controversial security bill in 2015 to expand the role of Japan's armed force
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