Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, battling scandal at home and facing collateral damage from a possible US-China trade war, has pledged to push ahead with his divisive plan to revise the “peace clause” of Japan’s constitution.
在竭力应对国内的丑闻并面对可能爆发的中美贸易战的连带影响之际，日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)作出承诺要推进其引起分歧的修改日本宪法“和平条款”的计划。
His speech on Sunday to the annual meeting of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party came with an apology for a cronyism scandal that has exposed document falsification at the finance ministry, dragged Mr Abe’s approval ratings to their lowest level since 2012 and threatened his hopes of becoming the country’s longest serving postwar prime minister.周日，安倍在执政的自民党(LDP)的年度会议上发表讲话，并就一起朋党丑闻致歉。这起曝光了日本财务省曾篡改文件的丑闻，把安倍的支持率拉低至2012年以来的最低水平，并危及他成为日本战后在位时间最长的首相的希望。Nevertheless, Mr Abe told the convention that “now is the time” to amend the constitution, a mission upon which the LDP was founded in 1955 and in which Mr Abe himself is a devoted believer.尽管如此，安倍还是在大会上表示，“现在是时候”修改宪法了。1955年成立的自民党以修宪为自身使命之一，安倍本人也是修宪的忠实信奉者。The attempt at revision, which will require significant reserves of political capital and the momentum to swing a public referendum, is focused on a wording change that would formally acknowledge the constitutionality of Japan’s military — the “self-defence” force whose annual budget is among the top 10 largest in the world.修宪需要大量政治资本以及能改变全民公投走向的势头。这次修宪尝试的重点在于改动相关措词，以正式承认日本拥有军队（日本“自卫”队的年度预算位居世界前十）符合宪法。While even some opponents may agree with the proposed change, widespread objection arises from a fear that it would provide a gateway for more radical changes to the constitution’s war-renouncing Article Nine.
尽管就连一些对手都可能会认同这一拟议的改动，但该尝试还是遭遇了普遍反对，因为人们担心这一改动会为更彻底地修改放弃战争权的宪法第九条铺路。Through its coalition, the LDP has, in theory, a majority large enough to push an amendment through parliament. But the recently revived cronyism scandal has substantially thinned Mr Abe’s esteem with the general public and produced what analysts describe as a huge “trust deficit”.通过其建立的联盟，理论上自民党拥有足以在议会通过宪法修正案的多数席位。但最近再度升温的朋党丑闻极大地削弱了安倍在公众中受到的尊重，并催生了分析人士所说的巨大“信任赤字”。