 LDP, Komei, and DPJ enforce debates on constitutional revision at Diet panelTransgressing the mission of the Research Committee on the Constitution, the Liberal Democratic, Komei, and Democratic parties used their majority in the Diet panel to explain and discuss papers on new constitutional drafts of their own, expected to appear around 2005. At the Lower House constitutional research committee meeting on August 5, these three parties introduced "points of argument" or an "interim report" with regard to their drafts. The Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party criticized them for deviating from the committee's task of "researching the Constitution from comprehensive and general viewpoints." Outlining the party's work on a draft, an LDP lawmaker demanded that the whole of the Preamble be rewritten and the phrases of "possession of forces for self-defense" and "the right of collective self-defense" be inserted into the Constitution. Concerning how Japan's security should be, the LDP shares similar views with the Komei and Democratic parties, he said. A DPJ lawmaker denounced the argument in defense of the Constitution for "sticking with views regarding the past" and called for Article 9 to be amended to pave the way for "Japan's participation in UN collective security activities." JCP Yamaguchi Tomio stated that the council should not set up a special framework to deal with the three parties' specific papers for constitutional revision. Talking about the historical role that Article 9 has played in postwar international politics, he criticized these parties for competing to revise Article 9. (end) |