Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2017 October 4 - 10 [POLITICS]

A9A will increase communication with grassroots movements

The Article 9 Association (A9A) on October 5 held a press conference in the Diet building to publish a written statement calling for an increase in nationwide efforts at the grassroots level, as the general election where constitutional revision will be an important issue approaches, in order to prevent the Abe government from amending the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.

The A9A statement points out that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party “for the first time since its founding” will feature constitutional amendments in the election campaign, and that revisionists would likely occupy two-thirds in the Diet with the LDP, the Komei Party, the Hope Party, and Ishin no Kai combined. The statement raises an alert that a defeat of pro-constitutional forces in the election will “undoubtedly allow them to initiate a proposal for constitutional revision in the ordinary session of the Diet in January 2018.”

It also points out that Prime Minister Abe Shinzo intends to establish the legitimacy of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in a revised-Article 9 as means to ensure “peace by force of arms” and warns, “The fundamental principle of the existing Article 9 will certainly be watered down.” Regarding the North Korea issue which PM Abe enthusiastically uses to incite fear among the general public, the statement asserts, “Only by means of an Article 9-based diplomacy can peace in the Korean Peninsula and the rest of Asia be established.”

At the press conference, Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University Watanabe Osamu of the A9A Secretariat said, “The general election will be a head-on confrontation between three pro-Constitution parties (Japanese Communist Party, Social Democratic Party, and Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan) and four anti-Constitution parties (LDP, Komei, Hope, and Ishin). We must focus on the reasons for opposition to changes in the Constitution in the election campaign and promote public awareness of the importance to the maintenance of the present Constitution.”