In future Japan may also have to contemplate adopting a more assertive defense role that conflicts with its pacifist consitutition, Howard Baker said in an interview with the Asahi Shimbun daily.

Referring to Japan as a "technological giant," Baker, who took up his post on July 5, said it was important for the two allies to work in partnership on the so-called Theater Missile Defense (TMD) program

"Missile defense is tomorrow's technology and how it develops is uncertain, but I think it is important for both Japan and the US to cooperate on the direction of this technology," Baker said in the inteview, conducted Wednesday.

TMD was originally intended to shield US allies Japan and South Korea from any North Korean missile threat. Washington and Tokyo have already started joint technical research on it.

In 1999, then Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui said Taipei would join the US initiative as long as Beijing's ballistic weapons were perceived as a threat.

Baker said it was up to Japan to square its involvement in TMD with its pacifist constitution.

"What we suggest is that Japan and the US should thoroughly cooperate in the development of this new system. It is Japan that decides how to incorporate it into its own defense sytem and how to reconcile it with the constitution," he said.

Asked what he thought about amending the constitution to allow the possibility of Tokyo participating in collective self-defense -- the doctrine of allies coming to the aid of one of their number if it is attacked -- or UN peacekeeping operations, Baker said that was also up to Japan.

"It is far too early to think about revising Japan's Constituion, which has served it well for over 50 years, and the US is not in a position to tell Japan what to do. But times change," Baker was quoted by the paper as saying.

"There are responsibilities that go with being a great nation, and Japan will no doubt consider that responsibility and what, if any, role it plays in peacekeeping missions.

The first clause of Article 9 of the postwar constitution says "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat of use of forces as a means of settling international disputes."

"Land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognised," the second clause goes on to say.

Japan has got around Article 9 by referring to its armed personnel -- which numbered 236,368 in 1999 -- as the Self-Defense Forces.

Shortly after winning the presidency of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and becoming prime minister in April, Junichiro Koizumi said this anomolous situation should be ended and he favoured altering the wording of the pacifist constitution which bars Japan from using force to settle international disputes.

Tokyo has already set up a committee of lawmakers and experts to examine the possibility of amending the constitution.

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