Anonymousabout 3 hours ago
Tens of thousands of Japanese citizens have taken to the streets in the largest constitutional protests since 2015, opposing Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's push to revise Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution and a simultaneous overhaul of weapons export rules that allows lethal arms sales for the first time since World War II. The protests unfold against a defense budget that has surged 61% since 2022 and a regional threat environment dominated by China's naval expansion, North Korea's missiles, and uncertainty about U.S. alliance commitments — but face a public genuinely divided on revision and procedural barriers that make formal amendment unlikely before at least 2028.