Debate sought over Japan security bills

Nagasaki mayor warns that nation's support of postwar Constitution's 'peaceful ideology' is weak

The mayor of Nagasaki urged Japanese leaders on Sunday to dispel the public's concerns over proposed government-backed national security bills by conducting "careful and sincere deliberations".

Speaking in the city at the 70th anniversary of the US atomic bombing there, Tomihisa Taue warned that the pacifist nature of the Japanese war-renouncing Constitution is "wavering", referring to the controversial bills that, if enacted, would allow Japan to engage in armed conflicts overseas for the first time since the end of World War II.