 Former prime minister proposes establishing monarch through constitutional changes In his great zeal to get militarism reestablished in Japan with the Emperor as head of state, Former Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro on January 20 announced a proposal for constitutional revisions drafted by the Institute for International Policy Studies that he chairs. It basically abandons the preamble of the present Constitution. The draft stipulates the Emperor as the head of the state, enormously empowers the prime minister, restricts people's rights in the event of an emergency, and makes Japan's maintenance of "defense forces" constitutional. It treats the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (Meiji Constitution) that states, "The Emperor is sacred and inviolable," as favorable to the present war-renouncing Constitution. The draft also enables overseas dispatches of national "defense forces" on missions to "protect Japanese nationals abroad," the pretext Japan used to carry out its aggression during WWII. The Institute for International Policy Studies is a private right-wing think tank studying and proposing policies on security. (end) |