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eJapan Conference,f pro-Yasukuni force, makes up the core of Abe Cabinet
gNow that part of the postwar regime has fallen apart with the revision of the Fundamental Law of Education, it is high time to break the main part of this regime, the Constitution, and replace it with a constitution specially made for the Japanese people.h
A recently published magazine called gNippon no Ibuki (Breath of Japan)h enthusiastically welcomes Prime Minister Abe Shinzofs call for gbreaking away from the postwar regimeh as a golden opportunity for constitutional revision. This is a magazine of the Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi), which marks its 10th founding anniversary this year.
The Japan Conference was established on May 30, 1997, through the merger of the gNational Congress to Defend Japan (Nippon wo Mamoru Kokumin-Kaigi)h founded in 1981 and the gSociety to Defend Japan (Nippon wo Mamoru Kai)h founded in 1974. The new organization was a product of their effort to unite rightist pro-constitutional revision forces that had promoted at the grassroots level since the 1970s movements demanding constitutional revision, legalization of the imperial era name, and opposition to the separate surname system for married couples.
The Japan Conference at present is led by Chair Miyoshi Toru, former chief justice of the Supreme Court, Vice Chair Odamura Shiro, former president of Takushoku University, Vice Chair Yamamoto Takuma, chairman emeritus of Fujitsu Limited. They are also acting as representing worshippers for Yasukuni Shrine, the center propagandizing justification for Japanfs past war of aggression. Thus, the Japan Conference is recognized as the headquarters of the pro-Yasukuni forces.
235 Dietmembers
One day before the inauguration of the Japan Conference, the Japan Conference Dietmembers Council was formed with the participation of more than 200 dietmembers. As of June 2005, 235 Dietmembers of the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic, and Peoplefs New parties as well as independents joined this group.
The Japan Conference and the Japan Conference Dietmembers Council came into being amid their gsense of crisish that reflection on Japanfs past war of aggression could spread widely in society. In 1993, then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei issued a statement expressing remorse over Japanfs conduct during WWII of forcing foreign women into sex slavery. In 1995, then Prime Minister Murayama Tomiichi in his statement expressed an apology for Japanfs past erroneous policy of aggression and colonial rule.
The Japan Conference took a hostile view of these moves. Its prospectus said, gThe ever spreading view of history of the Tokyo Trial (the International Military Tribunal for the Far East) is creating an obsequious diplomacy of apologizing to foreign countries and robbing young people who will bear the Japanfs destiny of their pride and confidence in their nation.h
Since then, the Japan Conference has been trying to impose on Japanese society, fully making use of state power, their peculiar values justifying the past war of aggression and eulogizing the state and the society of Japan that rushed to war.
The Japan Conference produced a movie entitled gWe Wonft Forgeth shown at gYushukanh, Yasukuni Shrinefs war museum. This film praises Japanfs war of aggression, saying, gIt was a war for self-existence and of self-defense in which 100 million Japanese people fought with heroic resolution for the continued existence of the state and nation.h
Emperor at the top of the nation
On May 3, the Preparatory Committee to Promote Enactment of a New Constitution, formed under the Japan Conference Dietmembers Council, made public a draft outline for a new constitution clarifying their view of an ideal nation.
It proposed an emperor-centered nation, stating, gUnited around the emperor, the Japanese people have overcome many difficulties and developed their country.h It stipulated the emperor as gthe head of the state.h
The draft devoted a chapter to gFamilyh in which it states, gThe value of family as Japanfs traditional and laudable custom is placed under the protection and assistance by the state.h
It proposed a complete revision of Article 9 that renounces war, declares non-possession of war potential, and denies the right of belligerency.
On the other hand, it calls for ga clear definition of the principle regulating human rightsh and states that the Japanese citizens have gthe duty to defend the nation.h
The draft is calling for placing the emperor at the top of the nation, imposing restrictions on human rights, regarding the family as the basic unit of the nation, and mobilizing all citizens for war; hence, it is indeed calling for the revival of the prewar Japanese society.
Causing concerns over its peculiar values
The Abe Cabinet is pro-Yasukuni and led by members of the Japan Conference Dietmembersf Council. Prime Minister Abe himself was the deputy secretary general of the council until 2005.
Among 18 Abe Cabinet members, 12 are in the council. Combined with those who take part in other similar Dietmembersf groups, the number of pro-Yasukuni cabinet members has reached 15.
Furthermore, two vice cabinet secretaries and four of the prime ministerfs special advisors also are members of the council.
eJust warf
Prime Minister Abefs slogan, gBeautiful country, Japan,h comes from greconstruction of the beautiful country,h a slogan that the Japan Conference put up at the time of its establishment. His call for gbreaking away from the postwar regimeh implies the reconstruction of a prewar national polity centered on the emperor.
The pro-Yasukuni force is claiming that Japanfs war of aggression was a gjust war,h and denounces the preamble to the Constitution calling for lasting peace as ga bond of apology to the Allied powers.h They appreciate gfamily valuesh established within the polity centered on the emperor as ga traditional and beautiful custom.h
The fact that the pro-Yasukuni force, which maintains such peculiar values longing for the prewar society, has taken the center stage casts a shadow on Japanfs future. Concerns over it has been expressed even in the LDP itself and in the United States.
At a symposium held in Tokyo on May 20, LDP House of Representatives Constitutional Research Committee Director Funada Hajime said, gOur party has started to deviate from the cardinal idea to restrain the state power by the limits imposed by the Constitution,h adding, gMentioning of the idea to prescribe in the Constitution duties of people to love nation and other duties will make things dubious.h
Isolated from rest of Asia
Referring to Abefs slogan of gBreaking away from the postwar regime,h U.S. Columbia University Professor Gerald Curtis said that it is hard to understand that the leader of a democratic country calls for a regime change of his own country and expressed his wish to hear Abefs explanation about what part of the postwar regime is so bad.
Francis Fukuyama, a conservative critic, said, gJapanfs unilateral revision of Article 9, viewed against the backdrop of its new nationalism, would isolate Japan from virtually the whole of Asia.h - Akahata, May 27, 2007
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