5,000 people rally against bill to establish procedures for constitutional revision

   In opposition to a bill to establish procedures for constitutional revision, some 5,000 people on the evening of April 12 took part in a rally at the Hibiya Amphitheatre in Tokyo and marched in demonstration to the Diet Building.

   At the news of the forcible passage of the bill at a Lower House committee meeting, the participants were filled with indignation.

   Takada Ken, speaking on behalf of the rally organizers, stressed that their movement against constitutional revision is reflected in the recent opinion surveys and drives the Abe Cabinet into a corner, and called on the participants to further increase the movement.

   Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo and Social Democratic Party President Fukushima Mizuho made reports on the Diet situation.

   Pointing out that the majority of the public want a thorough discussion on the bill, Shii criticized the ruling parties, saying, “They are destroying any semblance of democracy.”

   Enumerating the bill’s problems such as the failure to set the minimum voter turnout rate, the restrictions of teachers’ and public service employees’ freedom of expression of their opinions, and the failure to regulate paid advertisements, Shii said the pro-constitutional revision forces are trying to avoid a thorough discussion on the bill because such unfair and undemocratic mechanisms favoring them are incorporated into it.

   He said, “The ruling parties are eager to enact such an outrageous bill because they know that with a fair referendum system they could never gain the public support needed to change Article 9 and thereby turning Japan into ‘a country fighting wars abroad.’ They fear public opinion.”

   Shii called on the participants to rapidly increase the movement to get the bill scrapped by sharing the common ground of defending Article 9.

- Akahata, April 13, 2007