constitution

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

LDP plan calls for self-defense armed forces to be made constitutional

The Liberal Democratic Party's panel on the Constitution on July 7 published its first outline of a draft of a new constitution that makes it constitutional for Japan to maintain "self-defense armed forces."

The panel, chaired by former Prime Minister Mori Yoshiro, drew up this report as the basis for discussion of the LDP draft of the Constitution to be published in November at its convention marking its 50th founding anniversary.

The LDP's call for "self-defense armed forces" to be established in the new constitution means eliminating paragraph 2 of Article 9 of the Constitution that prohibits Japan from maintaining "war potential."

It states that the "self-defense armed forces will contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security" in order to make Japan's participation in foreign wars constitutional.

It also calls for a military court to be included in the Japanese court system.

The LDP outline calls for the Constitution's preamble to state that the Japanese people historically have been one with the emperor, the symbol of national unity. This is a call for the emperor to be placed in the center of Japan's history.

In the preamble, it sets out the goal of "eliminating oppression and infringement of human rights anywhere in the world," exactly in line with the U.S. Bush administration's strategy of intervention.

Regarding the provision on the rights of the people, the LDP outline makes it clear that the "rights" should be applied in tandem with "obligations" by defining "public welfare" as a "concept serving to maintain the nation's security and public order." This can easily be used to restrict people's basic rights.

The outline left the issue of citizens' "obligations for national defense" for further study.

As regards the criteria for the Diet to propose constitutional amendments, the LDP panel calls for the requirement of approval by "two-thirds" of Diet members of both houses to be eased to "a majority vote."

Akahata commented the LDP outline of the draft Constitution as follows:

"The LDP is trying desperately to make the constitutional revision acceptable to the Komei and Democratic parties by avoiding controversial provisions such as the "right of collective security" and the "state of emergency." The LDP does this in order to be able to push ahead with its plan for constitutional revision even under the present requirement of a "two-third majority vote" for initiating a process of revising the Constitution.

At a time when the Koizumi Cabinet is facing difficulty in maintaining good relations with other Asian countries because of the prime minister's insistence that he continues to visit Yasukuni Shrine, the LDP draft of the Constitution will add fuel to criticism of Japan for taking a war-mongering course, both at home and internationally, in particular with Japan's Asian neighbors." - Akahata, July 8, 2005