August 9, 2013
The Abe Cabinet decision on August 8 to name Japanese Ambassador to France Komatsu Ichiro as the cabinet legislation bureau chief will change the government’s traditional interpretation on the exercise of the right to collective self-defense and gut the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.
The Director-General of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau responds to questions in the Diet regarding interpretations and opinions on the Constitution and other laws on behalf of the Cabinet.
Successive bureau directors have provided to the Diet the accepted interpretation that the exercise of the right to collective self-defense is prohibited under Article 9.
At the time of the first Abe Cabinet, Komatsu served as a secretariat staff in Abe’s private panel set up with the aim of legalizing the use of the right to collective self-defense.
Abe chose an ideologically compatible person as his cabinet legislation bureau chief in order to impose a reinterpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution.
Ryutsukeizai University professor Uemura Hideki commented on Abe’s appointment as follows:
As for my stance, I accept the existence of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces as the minimum armed organization to protect our national security.
I agree to amend Article 9 for lifting the ban on the right of collective self-defense through a proposal by the Diet with two-thirds support of all parliamentarians and an approval of a majority of votes by referendum. I, however, do not support the PM’s tactic to overturn the current government’s interpretation of the Constitution as it amounts to “constitutional revision through the back door”.
The Director-General of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau responds to questions in the Diet regarding interpretations and opinions on the Constitution and other laws on behalf of the Cabinet.
Successive bureau directors have provided to the Diet the accepted interpretation that the exercise of the right to collective self-defense is prohibited under Article 9.
At the time of the first Abe Cabinet, Komatsu served as a secretariat staff in Abe’s private panel set up with the aim of legalizing the use of the right to collective self-defense.
Abe chose an ideologically compatible person as his cabinet legislation bureau chief in order to impose a reinterpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution.
Ryutsukeizai University professor Uemura Hideki commented on Abe’s appointment as follows:
As for my stance, I accept the existence of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces as the minimum armed organization to protect our national security.
I agree to amend Article 9 for lifting the ban on the right of collective self-defense through a proposal by the Diet with two-thirds support of all parliamentarians and an approval of a majority of votes by referendum. I, however, do not support the PM’s tactic to overturn the current government’s interpretation of the Constitution as it amounts to “constitutional revision through the back door”.
