Japan
for permanent security council seat
Japanese Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi will ask the United Nations to give Japan a permanent
seat on the Security Council when he travels to New York next month
to address the assembly.
"Reform of
the UN is a crucial issue,'' Koizumi told reporters in Tokyo. "Other
nations should be included on the Security Council.''
A permanent seat
on the council would give Japan, the second- biggest contributor to
the UN, greater say over peacekeeping operations and the use of military
force to back UN resolutions. Japan's pacifist constitution prohibits
its troops from fighting in any UN-mandated force.
Koizumi's decision
to send Japanese troops to southern Iraq last year prompted opposition
lawmakers to seek his resignation. The troops, tasked with delivering
aid, were deployed in an area removed from combat and ordered to retreat
if attacked.
The five permanent
members of the Security Council, with the power to block any proposed
resolutions, are the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K. and France. Japan,
Germany and other nations defeated in World War II are excluded.
U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell earlier this month said Japan should revise its constitution.
``The U.S. supports
our bid for a seat and they have said that isn't on condition we amend
the constitution,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said at
a press briefing earlier today.
Japan's ruling Liberal
Democratic Party has begun discussions on a possible review of the war-renouncing
constitution. Any changes to the document, which hasn't been amended
since its creation after World War II, would require approval from two-thirds
of lawmakers and a majority of voters in a national referendum.
Courtesy:
Bloomberg.com, August 24.
