National Referendum bill must be withdrawn: JCP Kasai

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National Referendum bill must be withdrawn: JCP Kasai

As the House of Representatives Special Research Committee on the Constitution began discussing the bills to establish the procedure for a national referendum, Japanese Communist Party representative Kasai Akira in a committee meeting on October 26 demanded that both the ruling parties and the Democratic Party withdraw their bills on the ground that they are designed to create the condition for an adverse revision of Article 9.

Pointing out that the Liberal Democratic Party last November published its draft Constitution focusing on an adverse revision of Article 9, and that the Abe Cabinet that was established in September has been calling for a constitutional revision to be achieved within five years, Kasai stated, "It is obvious that the submission of national referendum bills to the Diet constitutes an integral part of the moves to revise the Constitution."

Democratic Party member Edano Yukio, who explained the DPJ's bill, in effect agreed with Kasai, saying, "It is true that some Dietmembers regard the enactment of the bill as a step to actually revise the Constitution."

Kasai further criticized the ruling parties' national referendum bill for devising a system to make it easier to pass an amendment to the Constitution. The ruling parties' national referendum bill defines "a majority of valid ballots" as a majority vote without setting the minimum turnout rate needed to make the referendum valid.

Kasai pointed out that the bill would establish an undemocratic system in which affirmative votes of less than 30 percent of eligible voters would be enough to revise the Constitution, if the turnout rate is 50 percent.

He stressed that the ruling parties intend to set the legal hurdles for constitutional revision as low as possible.
- Akahata, October 27, 2006