December 28, 2011
Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on December 27 published the following statement on the lifting of the ban on arms exports announced by the government:
The Noda government released a document of the Chief Cabinet Secretary on December 27, announcing its policy to ease “the three principles banning arms exports” and participate in international joint development and production projects of armaments which includes fighter jets. The government has repeatedly made “exemption” stipulations in order to hollow out and take the teeth out of the three principles by such means as joining in the Japan-U.S. joint development for “the military defense program” and giving approval to weapons exports to a third country. The revision undermining the arms embargo principles will take shape for the first time since the Japanese government committed the principles in 1967.
The government explained that the revision this time is “exceptional” in accordance with changes in the international environment, and that it will safeguard the “principles of a peaceful country”. However, the revision undermining the principle of banning arms exports fulfills the expectations of the United States and the Japanese business world which have long demanded a lifting of the ban. It is clear that such a revision fully tramples on spirit of the Japanese Constitution.
The relaxation of the ban on arms exports will undermine the positive role Japan has played and the international trust it has gained by banning the exports of weapons.
The Japanese Communist Party strongly denounces the government’s latest decision which amounts to abandoning the position and role Japan should be internationally proud of based on Article 9 of the Constitution, and expresses its determination to fight with a broad range of citizens against the Noda Cabinet’s move to unabashedly trample on the Constitution.
The Noda government released a document of the Chief Cabinet Secretary on December 27, announcing its policy to ease “the three principles banning arms exports” and participate in international joint development and production projects of armaments which includes fighter jets. The government has repeatedly made “exemption” stipulations in order to hollow out and take the teeth out of the three principles by such means as joining in the Japan-U.S. joint development for “the military defense program” and giving approval to weapons exports to a third country. The revision undermining the arms embargo principles will take shape for the first time since the Japanese government committed the principles in 1967.
The government explained that the revision this time is “exceptional” in accordance with changes in the international environment, and that it will safeguard the “principles of a peaceful country”. However, the revision undermining the principle of banning arms exports fulfills the expectations of the United States and the Japanese business world which have long demanded a lifting of the ban. It is clear that such a revision fully tramples on spirit of the Japanese Constitution.
The relaxation of the ban on arms exports will undermine the positive role Japan has played and the international trust it has gained by banning the exports of weapons.
The Japanese Communist Party strongly denounces the government’s latest decision which amounts to abandoning the position and role Japan should be internationally proud of based on Article 9 of the Constitution, and expresses its determination to fight with a broad range of citizens against the Noda Cabinet’s move to unabashedly trample on the Constitution.
