[JURIST] A new poll shows that sixty-one percent of Japanese voters support amending the country's US-drafted pacifist constitution [full text] but there is disagreement about how far Japan should move from its renunciation of war. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution renounces the right to keep a military or threaten military action. This is the second year in a row that more than sixty percent supported a constitutional revision in a poll, and the results come as Japan is raising its military and diplomatic profile around the world. Non-combat troops were sent to Iraq last year in its first deployment to a combat zone since the close of World War II and the country is working on a joint missile defense program with the US [BBC article]. A draft revision by ruling party lawmakers proposes a recognition of the right to use military force for self-defense purposes. AFP has more.