ABSTRACT
Of the amendments made to the government bill in the Diet, the one that aroused the greatest concern was the amendment to Article 9, the renunciation of war. The provision on renouncing war was the focus of much attention from the moment the government's draft was published on March 6, 1946. Yet relatively little debate about the provision occurred in either the Privy Council or the Diet. The majority of questions asked in relation to the provision regarded the right of self-defense and the problem of security. When the Liberal Party became the Liberal Democratic Party and began to pursue revision of the new constitution in earnest, Ashida's statements began to change, taking on interpretative overtones. The Liberal Party's principal objective in undertaking revision was, at that time, to make the newly formed Self-Defense Forces consistent with the provisions of the constitution.
