The latest survey, conducted last November by the Japan Senior High School Teachers and Staff Union on 12,286 students at 148 high schools in 28 prefectures, indicated that 60.9 percent of the students were against a possible revision of Article 9.

Meanwhile, the ratio of students who supported a revision stood at 11.5 percent, little changed from the previous survey's 11 percent.

Among respondents who said Article 9 should be left unchanged, 73.2 percent cited as reasons that a revision "could open the way to war," while 14.0 percent said, "Article 9 is something (Japan should) boast about to the world."

In contrast, 43.3 percent of the students backing a revision of Article 9 referred to the existence of "international issues that cannot be addressed properly under the current Constitution."

Article 9 stipulates "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes."

As for the Self-Defense Force, 24.8 percent of the respondents said they believe it does "not violate the Constitution," exceeding 19.3 percent who said it is unconstitutional, while 33.7 percent gave no opinion on whether the SDF is constitutional or unconstitutional.

The survey also indicated that 75.3 percent of the high school students continue to be against Japan introducing military conscription. The figure has been in the 70-80 percent range since when the teachers union began compiling the survey.

The latest survey also showed that 84.1 percent of the students deemed it necessary for Japan to uphold its three nonnuclear principles of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons on Japanese soil.