‘Stop sucking up to America’: Japan’s youth rises up to protect pacifist constitution

Protests are growing against moves to change Japan’s ‘supreme law’, a document written by the US that is now being challenged by Iran war

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t may be a toy, but Gohta Hashimoto’s lightsaber is symbolic of the battle he and his fellow protesters face as they attempt to derail moves by Japan’s government to change the country’s pacifist constitution for the first time in its 80-year history.

“I’ve been interested in the constitution for about a year, ever since the rise of far-right parties in Japan,” says Hashimoto, a 22-year-old university student. “I wanted to be part of a movement that keeps my country peaceful and protects the constitution.”

He and other young people are the driving force behind a growing movement to protect Japan’s supreme law, or constitution, a US-written document that is now being challenged by the demands of an American president.