JCP Sasaki criticizes bill to ‘establish political leadership’

Japan Press Weekly

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

JCP Sasaki criticizes bill to ‘establish political leadership’

Japanese Communist Party representative Sasaki Kensho on May 13 expressed opposition to the bill to “establish political leadership”, criticizing it as a disguised attempt to strengthen the cabinet’s power. The following is the excerpts of his statement at an Upper House Steering Committee meeting:

The bill to “establish political leadership” has been promoted together with the bill to revise the Diet Act under the initiative of Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ozawa Ichiro.

It is aimed at strengthening the authority of the Cabinet by installing new functions in the Cabinet’s Secretariat and the Cabinet Office as well as drastically increasing the number of vice ministers, parliamentary secretaries, and assistants to the prime minister.

On the other hand, with the bill to revise the Diet Act the government intends to prohibit bureaucrats from responding to Dietmembers’ questions in the Diet under the pretext of creating smooth Diet procedures. Such a measure will clearly lead to a weakening of the Diet’s function of investigating into and supervising administrative organizations associated with national politics.

Above all, the attempt to ban the Cabinet Legislation Bureau director-general from answering questions in Diet deliberations must not be tolerated since it will pave the way for an interpretational revision of Article 9 of the Constitution. The director-general is responsible for interpreting the Constitution and, for example, stated in the Diet previously that sending the Self-Defense Forces abroad for military action is unconstitutional.

What the government is attempting to accomplish by those two bills goes against public sovereignty and parliamentary democracy, both of which are fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution.

- Akahata, May 14, 2010