Japan eyes overhaul of constitution

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party plans to decide on the changes next month and announce a final draft in November 2005, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing party sources.

It would mark the first revision of the pacifist 1947 constitution imposed by the United States at the end of World War II, in which Japan renounced war and the right to maintain a military.

With some 550 Japanese troops in Iraq and Japan facing threats from North Korea, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said the founding document should be revised "in the light of common sense."

But debate over the change could get heated and Japan could face criticism from neighboring Asian nations who were victims of Japan's wartime aggression worried about Tokyo's expanding military role, analysts said.