TOKYO - Tens of thousands people rallied across Japan on Thursday to protest against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's attempts to amend the nation's pacifist Constitution as the nation marked its 71st Constitution Memorial Day.In Tokyo, some 60,000 people, including students, legal experts, representatives from opposition parties, as well as common citizens, rallied in the city's Rinkai Disaster Prevention Park, holding banners and flags and shouting slogans such as "Changing Article 9, No" "Abe administration should step down."Kazuo Shii, head of the Japanese Communist Party, said at the gathering that the plan to change Article 9 of the Constitution would make it possible for Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to be involved in wars abroad and such a plan should be firmly opposed.Toshihiro Yamauchi, professor emeritus of Hitotsubashi University, said that it's because of the pacifist Constitution that Japanese people could enjoy peaceful life and the Constitution Memorial Day provided people an opportunity to reaffirm the positive role that the pacifist Constitution has played on safeguarding peace.Rallies were also held in Osaka, Fukuoka and Hokkaido and other areas across Japan, according to local reports.Abe, however, reiterated on Thursday his attempts to amend the Constitution in a video message at a gathering of supporters of constitutional revision in Tokyo.He said that "now is the time" to carry forward discussions to justify the existence of the SDF in the Constitution.According to the organizer, some 1,200 people attended the gathering.Japan's current Constitution, drawn up under the Allied occupation following the World War II, is best known for its Article 9, by which Japan renounces its right to wage war and promises that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained."The Constitution has never been revised since it went into effect on May 3, 1947.Revising the Constitution has long been a goal of Abe and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The LDP has been advocating constitutional revision as part of its platform since the party was founded in the 1950s, including changing the war-renouncing Article 9.Public opinions about amending the Constitution, however, remain differed. A recent poll by Japan's Kyodo News showed that 61 percent of the respondents were against any constitutional amendments under the Abe administration. glitter silicone wristbandsinspirational rubber braceletscustomize silicone wristbandssilicone wristbandswristband-home
Excessive use of headphones or earbuds is among the common threats to young people's hearing ability. [Photo/VCG] BEIJING - A survey showed that 66.3 percent of 2,002 respondents believed unhealthy lifestyles resulted in hearing impairment among Chinese youth. While 79.7 percent of the respondents believed they had good hearing abilities, 70.1 percent of them expressed the concern that unhealthy exposure to sounds will harm their hearing, said the survey conducted by China Youth Daily. Excessive use of headphones or earbuds is among the common threats to young people's hearing ability, said Han Ri, a surgeon at Nanfang Hospital of Southern Medical University, adding other reasons such as mental stress and lack of rest and sleep can cause sudden hearing loss. Young people should pay particular attention to their hearing ability in the midst of busy work schedules and stressful mental states. The volume and time length of headphone usage should be controlled to a moderate level, and the frequency of staying up late and being overstrained should be reduced as much as possible, Han said. Of all the respondents, 2.2 percent are born in the 2000s, 30.1 percent in the 1990s and 50.2 percent in the 1980s. figured wristbandsorder rubber bracelets cheapdebossed wristbandpersonalized wristbandscustom wrist sweatbands<%2fcenter>
