The group is pushing for the western Japanese city of Hirakata, whose 400,000 people face no obvious external threats, to be declared a "non-defended locality" under a 1977 additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions of war.

Under the protocol, which Japan ratified in June, such a city cannot legally be attacked nor can it be used in support of military operations.

"We don't want to allow war to happen. So we will tie the hands of the Japanese government," lawyer Takeo Matsumoto told reporters Tuesday.

"This is based on international law," Matsumoto said. "There is a right to declare oneself non-defended."

Japan since last year has stationed troops in Iraq in a departure from its pacifist US-imposed constitution of 1947. Japan is also considering building long-range missiles to face perceived threats from North Korea and China.

The pacifist group said it aimed to turn back the momentum towards the military and return to pacifism that coincided with Japan's rapid development from the ashes of World War II.

"I was shocked by the terrorist attacks of September 11 three years ago," said Yukiyo Ota, a spokeswoman for the group. "When citizens kept getting killed in Afghanistan and then Iraq, I felt something had to be done."

Some 18,600 residents of Hirakata, a university city 375 kilometersmiles) west of Tokyo, signed a petition last month supporting the idea of declaring the city undefended, a municipal official said.

A panel of local lawmakers is set to study the proposed declaration Thursday, the official said.

A similar movement has been underway in recent years to declare Berkeley, California an "un-defended locality." The US university town has already declared itself "nuclear free," meaning no work on nuclear weapons can take place in city limits.

Matsumoto, a high-profile human rights lawyer, won a Supreme Court ruling in October that held the government responsible for mercury poisoning that killed hundreds of people from 1960 in Minamata Bay, southern Japan.

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