May 4, 2024

A rally to celebrate the 77th anniversary of the enforcement of the Japanese Constitution took place in a Tokyo park on May 3 with about 32,000 people participating.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Tamura Tomoko, Executive Deputy President of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan Ohsaka Seiji, Co-leader of the “Reiwa Shinsengumi” party Kushibuchi Mari, and Social Democratic Party head Fukushima Mizuho delivered speeches, and the Upper House group “Okinawa Whirlwind” sent a message in solidarity to the Constitution Day event. Following the rally, the participants marched in demonstration and JCP Secretariate Head Koike Akira joined in the march.

JCP Chair Tamura in her speech noted that Prime Minister Kishida Fumio at the Japan-U.S. summit in April promised to “upgrade” cooperation between the U.S. military and the Self-Defense Forces, and asked, “What exactly does this mean?”

She also noted, “The U.S. missile strategy ‘Integrated Air Missile Defense (IAMD) vision’ mentions the ‘ability to seamlessly integrate with close allies.’ Furthermore, an official document of the U.S. military even states that the allies in the Indo-Pacific will be placed under U.S. command and that they will ‘secede a piece of their sovereignty’.”

She stated, “This means that the SDF would come under the de facto command of the U.S. military, and that our country’s sovereignty and the command and control of the SDF, would be taken from Japan and be handed over to the U.S.”

“To what extent do the ruling parties intend to trample on the Constitution!” She called on the audience to expand the joint struggle between concerned citizens and opposition parties in order to restore constitutionalism.