TOKYO – On a Tokyo street corner, in the pouring rain, a swelling crowd gathered with drenched placards and sodden flags. On one of them was written just two words, in big bold Japanese kanji characters: “No War”.
It’s a sentiment that is gaining more and more volume in Japan, which is currently witnessing its largest anti-war protests in decades.
Since coming to power in October 2025, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has taken major steps away from the country’s post-war pacifist stance, lifting long-standing restrictions on arms exports and expanding Japan’s military role abroad.
The government says such moves are necessary in an increasingly tense region. But for many residents, it’s raising alarm. As fears grow that Japan is becoming a war-capable nation, protests are gaining momentum.
Public protests in Japan tend to be relatively restrained. There’s a strong cultural understanding of social harmony and not causing disruption. So when people do take to the streets in large numbers, it usually signals something deeper.
This time, the issue is Japan’s national identity.
The PM pushing for change After World War Two, Japan adopted the constitution, including Article 9, which prohibits the maintenance of armed forces and renounces war as a right of sovereignty.
Now, Takaichi says this framework no longer reflects reality. Geographically, Japan sits in a challenging neighbourhood with an assertive China, an unpredictable North Korea, and Russia nearby. And the United States, its closest ally, has been encouraging Tokyo to play a more active security role.
She’s not the first Japanese leader to push for changes to Japan’s postwar security framework.
Over the past few decades, conservative leaders, most notably from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, have called for amendments to Japan’s 1947 constitution. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had advocated revising Article 9 to formalise the role of the self-defence forces.
Under Abe, the Diet passed a controversial security bill in 2015 to expand the role of Japan’s armed forces. This allows Japan to exercise limited self-defence, including supporting allies under attack.
On 21 April, however, the Japanese government took a significant step: lifting its long-standing ban on exporting lethal weapons. It argued that allies must support one another in what it calls an increasingly severe security environment. Outside the prime minister’s office, as the rain suddenly cleared and sunlight broke through, the crowd swelled and the chanting grew louder. This wasn’t just an older generation holding on to the past. Many in their twenties and thirties were there too. Akari Maezono, who is in her 30s, held brightly painted paper lanterns calling for peace.
“I’m angry that these changes could be made without properly listening to us, the public,” she said.
Nearby was an older gentleman standing tall with a bright red banner.
“The Japanese constitution, Article 9 in particular, must be protected at all costs,” he said.
“It kept Japan from being drawn into past conflicts like the US-Iran war. Without it, we surely would have entered the war by now.”
‘No more war’
Japan’s 1947 constitution was enshrined just two years after the end of World War Two, when the United States defeated the country by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing some 200,000 people by the end of 1945.
