Senior Japanese politicians have raised their opposition to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's move to expand the scope and role of the country's military.<br />Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama has denounced Abe for dragging the Japanese people into wars, saying his self-righteous politics are intolerable. <br />Speaking at a forum on Monday, Murayama said Abe's actions don't match his words to uphold the 1995 Murayama statement, and this has caused mistrust and concern among Japan's neighbors.<br />On the same day, former Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono also criticized Abe, saying that preserving Article 9 of the constitution which renounces Japan's right to maintain a military, is the right way of pursuing "active pacifism" that Abe claims to advocate.
