Ruling parties will submit bill banning constitutional interpreters from speaking in the Diet

Japan Press Weekly

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

Ruling parties will submit bill banning constitutional interpreters from speaking in the Diet

The three ruling parties consisting of the Democratic Party of Japan, the Social Democratic Party, and the People’s New Party on December 7 agreed to introduce a bill to prohibit bureaucrats from responding to lawmakers questions in the Diet.

They will take a first step toward “Diet reform” with DPJ Secretary General Ozawa Ichiro taking the initiative when the ordinary Diet session is convened early next year.

The bill is expected to include a provision barring the Cabinet Legislation Bureau director-general from speaking in the Diet.

The SDP, which had been reluctant to support the bill on the grounds that it would change constitutional interpretations, eventually agreed to the bill.

The Legislation Bureau director-general is in charge of constitutional interpretations on behalf of the Cabinet. The bureau has repeatedly distorted interpretations of the war-renouncing Constitution, for example to legalize the Self-Defense Forces and justify their overseas deployment, but it has so far considered the use of force abroad as unconstitutional.

Banning the Legislation Bureau director-general from speaking in Diet sessions is apparently aimed at getting constitutional interpretations changed in order to enable the SDF to use force abroad.

- Akahata, December 8, 2009