JCP Ichida criticizes U.S. experts' group for trying to encourage advocates of constitutional revision

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JCP Ichida criticizes U.S. experts' group for trying to encourage advocates of constitutional revision

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on February 19 criticized a US bipartisan group of experts for "moving to assist advocates of Japan's constitutional revision and further strengthen the Japan-U.S. military alliance" in its report on the Japan-U.S. alliance.

A panel of Asian affairs experts co-chaired by Richard Armitage, former deputy U.S. secretary of state, and Joseph Nye, former assistant secretary of defense, compiled the report entitled "The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Getting Asia Right Through 2020."

The report emphasizes that the alliance should continue to be the foundation for U.S. Asia strategy. It also says it welcomes the debate going on in Japan about revising the Japanese Constitution as an "encouraging" move that reflects Japan's interest in the question of regional and global security.

The bipartisan group published its first report of this kind in October 2000. Entitled "The United States and Japan: Advancing Toward Mature Partnership." it urged Japan to adopt the right of collective self-defense and upgrade the Japan-U.S. alliance.

Later, Armitage repeatedly called on Japan to adversely revise the war-renouncing Article 9 and exercise the right of collective self-defense.

The JCP secretariat head said that the latest bipartisan report is intended to produce the same political effect as the one that the 2000 report had as a blueprint for the Bush administration's policy toward Japan.

"The major feature of this report is its intention to help promote the move towards revising the Japanese Constitution by citing the constitutional debate in Japan and the call for a permanent law on dispatches of the Self-Defense forces as 'encouraging'."

He criticized the experts' group for flagrantly demanding that Japan spend more tax money on its military buildup and on establishing a joint operational setup between Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. forces.

"We will call for the defense of Article 9 louder than ever and increase the struggle to stop the constitutional revision."
- Akahata, February 20, 2007