If the default journal table is in the user being modified, you need two MODIFY requests.
For example, suppose the journal table fincopy is contained by user jones. To change the default journal table from fincopy to jrnl1, the present default journal table must be dropped and then a new journal table must be created.
The first request removes fincopy as the default and drops it from the system. If there are any existing tables that use it as their journal table, the request returns an error.
MODIFY USER jones AS DROP DEFAULT JOURNAL TABLE;
After the current journal table has been dropped, the second request creates a new default journal table.
MODIFY USER jones AS DEFAULT JOURNAL TABLE = jrnl1;