Japan Press Weekly

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2022 October 26 - November 1 [POLITICS]

Ishin party much more hawkish than LDP regarding constitutional revision and military buildup

The “Nippon Ishin no Kai” party, while claiming itself to be an opposition party, is displaying its eagerness for an adverse revision of the Constitution even more aggressively than the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The Ishin party in May released a proposal for constitutional revision which shows considerable similarity to the LDP’s draft constitution as the proposal calls for inserting the legitimacy of the presence of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces in Article 9 while leaving intact the article’s pacifist Paragraph1 and 2. In the following month, the Ishin party, in accordance with its policy on constitutional amendments, published a draft for an emergency clause that restricts basic human rights. The Ishin party faces in the same direction as former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in terms of constitutional revision, especially in terms of boosting the legitimacy of the SDF and introducing an emergency provision in the Constitution.

In the current extraordinary Diet session, the Ishin party has demonstrated its hawkish stance. Ishin party co-head Baba Nobuyuki on October 6 at a plenary session of the House of Representatives pushed Prime Minister Kishida Fumio to set a deadline for the Diet initiation of constitutional revision. In addition, at a meeting of the Lower House Commission on the Constitution on October 27, Baba said that his party will continue to push hard for constitutional revision.

Furthermore, the Ishin party displays enthusiasm which even surpasses the enthusiasm of the ruling LDP-Komei coalition for Japan’s extraordinary military buildup.

At a Lower House plenary meeting on October 6, Ishin representative Baba cited North Korea’s ballistic missile launches and the Ukraine crisis, and claimed that it is essential for Japan to include in its security strategy concrete policies regarding a huge increase in military spending, Japan’s possession of an enemy base strike (counterforce) capability, and the introduction of a “nuclear sharing” arrangement in Japan.

On the following day at a House of Councilors plenary meeting, Ishin lawmaker Asada Hitoshi said that it will be difficult to block all North Korea’s missiles targeting Japan even with the use of an antimissile system, and claimed that the government should consider incorporating a pre-emptive strike policy among its options. He also claimed that the government should not stick to its exclusively defense-oriented posture as it is regarded as unrealistic, and added that there is an opinion demanding that Japan should deploy missiles capable of carrying both nuclear and non-nuclear warheads.

The Ishin party began insisting that Japan should introduce a “nuclear sharing” arrangement soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Three days later, ex-PM Abe and Ishin party founder Hashimoto Toru in their talks on a TV program stressed the need for this arrangement. The Ishin party on March 3 published its urgent proposal for dealing with a crisis situation following the war in Ukraine. In the proposal, the party calls for starting discussions on the strengthening of Japan’s military capability with the use of a “nuclear sharing” program.

On top of this, the Ishin party demands that Japan’s defense budget be increased without restrictions and that the ruling parties allow the Ishin party to join in their discussions on a revision of three key national security policy documents which began on October 19.

Past related article:
> Shii criticizes LDP-Komei talks regarding three key national security policy documents [October 21, 2022]