Photo/Illutration Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels sail during an exhibition training in Wakasa Bay off Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, on July 16. Large numbers of spectators are seen on the deck of the destroyer Hyuga, left. (Toshiyuki Hayashi)

Fifty-one percent of voters supported revising Article 9 of the Constitution and spelling out the legal status of the Self-Defense Forces under the Kishida administration, while 33 percent were opposed, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey.

The poll also found 50 percent felt that the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a key proponent of the revision, would not greatly impact the debate over the constitutional amendment and national security. The share of voters who felt the opposite was 42 percent.

The latest nationwide telephone poll was conducted on July 16-17.

Regarding amending the Constitution, a similar question was asked when Abe was in office from 2012 to 2020.

In the nationwide, telephone poll taken in March 2018, the most recent comparable one, 33 percent backed the addition of the SDF clause with Abe in office, while 51 percent were opposed.

But the latest survey also showed that constitutional revision was the issue cited least by voters when asked to choose from five that they wanted the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to tackle as the top priority.

Thirty percent of voters chose measures to fight the rising prices of goods, making it the highest priority.

That was followed by social security, at 23 percent; economy and employment, at 22 percent; diplomacy and national security, at 15 percent; and constitutional revision, at 6 percent.

As to granting the SDF the capability to strike missile bases of a foreign country if it showed signs of attacking Japan, 50 percent supported it and 40 percent were opposed, according to the survey.

Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party is pushing for the national defense budget to be increased to 2 percent of gross domestic product from the current 1 percent.

The survey found 46 percent felt that defense spending should be maintained at the current level, exceeding the 34 percent in favor of raising it.

The approval rate for the Kishida Cabinet edged down to 57 percent in the latest survey, compared with 59 percent in the previous survey taken in May. The disapproval rate was 25 percent, down 1 percentage point.

The survey also asked if voters were anxious about a possible increase in attempts by assailants to change the status quo of politics and society through violence in Japan.

That question was posed about a week after Abe was shot by an unemployed man in Nara on July 8 while giving a speech for a candidate running in the Upper House election.

Fifty-nine percent cited feeling anxiety, compared with the 38 percent who answered the opposite, according to the survey.

Sixty-six percent of those aged 18-29 cited anxiety, the highest of all age groups.

The poll also showed that 57 percent endorsed the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with the 62 percent who gave its approval in the May survey.

Thirty-four percent disapproved of its handling, up from 32 percent.

The latest survey was conducted by contacting randomly selected telephone numbers by computer.

It received valid responses from 538 voters, or 53 percent, of the fixed numbers for 1,019 households that had at least one eligible voter.

As for mobile phone numbers, there were valid answers from 797 voters, or 40 percent, of 1,992 numbers found to be used by an eligible voter.

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