Japan Press Weekly

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2017 May 17 - 23 [POLITICS]

Opposition parties/citizens alliance will protect Constitution and open way to bright future

Akahata ‘current’ column

“Under the name of peace and democracy, the U.S.-led occupation authorities imposed on Japan a new constitution in a bid to break down our homeland.” The “Constitutional Revision Song” lyrics by former Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro, who served as a naval officer during the war, was released in 1953.

As a major advocate of the argument that the current Constitution was forced on Japan by the occupation authorities, Nakasone incorporated in the lyrics his strong desire to establish “Japanese people’s own constitution”. At a gathering which was recently held to celebrate Nakasone’s 99th birthday, he said that his “greatest hope in life” is to achieve constitutional amendments.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and the owner of the rightist newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, Watanabe Tsuneo, participated in the gathering. Abe in his speech cited his “read the Yomiuri Shimbun thoroughly” remarks that he made in the Diet in response to an opposition lawmaker’s question regarding his view on constitutional revision. He said that he will read Nakasone’s latest book “thoroughly”.

Nakasone, the elder of the Liberal Democratic Party, has cast hostile eyes on the pacifist Constitution for six decades. PM Abe intends to take the teeth out of the war-renouncing Article 9 by proclaiming the existence of the Self-Defense Forces in it to enable Japan to deploy armed forces abroad without restrictions. Watanabe’s Yomiuri Shimbun on Constitution Memorial Day exclusively reported on this intent. They all have an extreme obsession to change the Constitution.

The largest Japanese nationalist group Nippon Kaigi, which reportedly provided anti-constitutional speech scenarios to Abe, along with various right-wing forces jointly with the pro-constitutional revisionist LDP are trying to reverse Japan’s post-war pacifist stance.

In order to fight back against the forces which refuse to learn from history and which endanger the future of Japan, it is necessary to further develop collaboration between opposition parties and concerned citizens, which will be the key to protecting the Constitution and opening the way for a bright future.

Past related articles:
> Many newspapers criticize Abe’s declaration regarding a new constitution [May 10, 2017]
> JCP Koike denounces Abe’s call for legitimizing SDF [May 5, 2017]