Japan Press Weekly

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2012 April 25 - May 8 [POLITICS]

JCP supports a Constitution-based Japan: Ichida on May 3

May 3 marks the 65th anniversary of the Constitution. Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on May 3 published the following statement on the Constitution Day:

The 65th anniversary of the Constitution should be a joyful occasion, but successive governments of the previous ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the present ruling Democratic Party of Japan have made light of the pioneering spirit of the Constitution and its basic principles. Livelihoods and businesses of the people who suffered from the 3.11 disaster have shown little recovery. Some 160,000 people are still forced to live away from their homes more than a year after the Fukushima nuclear accident, and more than 60,000 people have moved out of Fukushima Prefecture. Let alone not having their livelihoods restored to them, they do not even know if they can ever return to their homes. They are not being protected by the Constitution. The government and the National Diet should move immediately to help rebuild victims’ and evacuees’ lives and restore their jobs based on constitutional principles. The state authorities should also work to improve people’s living standards overall.

The government is moving in a direction counter to the democratic principles of the Constitution. Anti-constitutional forces are planning to cut the number of Dietmembers and neglect the popular will and are also planning to enact a secret protection law which will lead to the creation of a regime keeping a watchful eye on the public and restricting the people’ right to know. The Deliberative Council on the Constitution started off last year in both chambers of the Diet with a view to proposing a constitutional revision. Japan is entering a new phase in discussions on amending the Constitution. In the Deliberative Council, groups intent to rewrite the Constitution argue that the present Constitution is ambiguous in terms of “emergency rules”. Each pro-revision party presents different drafts of a constitution. In contrast, a wide spectrum of people united in struggles such as in the nationwide movement of the Article 9 Association and the joint action under the banner of the movement against constitutional revision are steadily increasing their strength in order to have the peace and democratic principles of the Constitution fully implemented and enforced.

This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty coming into effect, and we must question the direction that Japan is proposing to take in the future. More than 130 U.S. military facilities and bases exist in Japan, many of which are concentrated in Okinawa, even 67 years after the end of WWII. Rather than listening to the public outcry of “No base!”, the government is pushing ahead with the plan to construct another U.S. base in disregard of Okinawans’ demands. Besides, our government, in subservience to the United States, is planning to use taxpayer money for the strengthening of the U.S. military presence in Guam, in a bid to further advance Japan-U.S. military integration abroad. The only possible way to build a Japan that can truly contribute to regional and global peace is to go back to the original sprit of the Constitution, end the strengthening of military ties with the United States, and abrogate the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.

Based on the Constitution, the Japanese Communist Party commits itself to advancing policies focusing on people’s lives, removing the military alliance from Japan, and establishing a Japan benefiting from true independence, peace, human rights, and democracy.